Review Summary: On Once Again, John Legend creates plenty of catchy and melodic songs, but overall, the album is uninteresting and doesn't live up to the soulful Get Lifted. Although it is plenty enjoyable for most listeners.
Why do people like to listen to music? Well, because its enjoyable I guess. You could say John Legends sophomore album, Once Again, is enjoyable. It has plenty of catchy melodies and groovy tracks played out wonderfully on a grand piano sung by John Legends great, smooth voice. Hip-Hop beats and soulful background singers go along with John Legends style in a way heard only on his debut album, Get Lifted. But theres a very common problem with Once Again. No, its not that its basically Get Lifted part two and no its not that it is poorly written. The problem with Once Again is that all of the songs "youve heard before". Let me explain. Once Again is a very catchy album. Being produced by certain artists such as Will.i.am, Craig Street, and on one track, Kanye West and being that John Legend is a talented musician and singer, this album is very, well, nice. Though, all the songs and melodies and chords and harmonies seem to be familiar. The tracks on Once Again basically reflect on all of the pop music that was popular in the last 60 years. The good thing though is that Once Again is enjoyable and therefore many people would consider this fine and up to par with most pop standards.
John Legend has one of those dream voices. Its very soothing and fits in all of the styles of music he plays. He may never bring it to his full potential but its wonderful. Once Again shows a lot of different varieties of music. With each style John and his voice seem to fit in excellently. On the first single and first track of Once Again, you are immediately drawn into the groove of the album. Save Room is probably one of the best songs Once Again has to offer. With its nice organ and Hip-Hop beat John Legend shows that hes back and with something great. Unfortunately, the first track and single is a tad bit deceiving. After Save Room songs like Heaven and Each Day Gets Better are disappointments. They are simply uninteresting. Bland lyrics about love and familiar melodies and chords (like I talked about earlier) turn the average mature listener away. Though in the first half of Once Again there are some satisfying songs. The fourth track, Show Me, begins with a very Jimi Hendrix like guitar intro as John Legends surprisingly high vocals make the song more interesting than bland. Also, the song Stereo reflects back on John Legends cross between soul and Hip-Hop style prominent on Get Lifted though doesnt satisfy as much as Get Lifted tracks like Live It Up and Lets Get Lifted. Moreover, the lyrics on Stereo are a little boring and fairly lame as John sings, "Name droppin' every day/But I still want her anyway/I like how she moves/Think she's cool/My favourite Getaway/"
Moving further into Once Again, the listener is filled with joy when John Legend plays out beautiful chords on his piano similar to the Get Lifted hit, Ordinary People, but on this song, P.D.A. (We Just Dont Care), the Ordinary People like intro changes direction completely into a groovy, dance track complete with funky bass and hand claps similar to the disco days of the late 70s. While catchy, P.D.A. isnt exactly what most John Legend fans were looking for when they bought the album. On the next few closing songs, a lot of different styles are heard; all familiar, but all fairly well done. Another Jimi Hendrix guitar part is displayed in Slow Dance and the song Maxine reflects back on the jazz and swing days of the 20s and 30s. Also, Where Did My Baby Go? also seems to come from that era with a backup orchestra and jazzy drumming. With the great song Another Again, the Get Lifted days are shown and this time more enjoyable than Stereo. Also, the Ordinary People sound alike, Again, is very nice but not quite as epic as Ordinary People. Overall, as the last song, the piano driven Coming Home, comes to a conclusion, the listener may wonder where most of the soulful days of Get Lifted went and how exciting and interesting Once Again really is.
Overall, Once Again is simply an uninteresting album. Although it has variety and fine musicianship, most of the songs are too familiar and on occasion boring. Though, by no means is Once Again not an enjoyable album or bad. All of the songs from Save Room to Coming Home are catchy and for the most part good. But in general, youve heard this album before. Its not the same as Get Lifted but it sure isnt something too exciting or new. Better luck next time John and lets hope you can come up with something more interesting in the future!
This album deserves a 3/5, but for me its more of a 2.5/5
Recommended Tracks:
Save Room
Show Me
Again
Another Again
Please Comment and Enjoy
Flea is Godly
Odd
