Supporting Obama in 2008 seems to have given R&B artist John Legend something of a social and political awareness boost. This now resulted in a collaboration with the überhiphoppers of The Roots called “Wake Up!”, an album on which they re-interpret just under a dozen of both well-known and lesser known protest songs that cover Philly soul, funk and gospel.
Donny Hathaways “Ghetto Boy” and Baby Huey’s “Hard Times” are juxtaposed against more hopeful cuts like Ernie Hines' “Our Generation” en Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes' “Wake Up Everybody” while Bill Wither’s anti-war classic “I Can’t Write Left-Handed” is stretched from a ‘mere’ 6 minutes to an 11-minutes long epic story.
“Wake Up!” is not so much a cover album as it is a modern take on the originals that haven’t lost any of their power… both musically and lyrically. It makes “Wake Up!” an album that is the perfect antidote for all the crap they try to sling as R&B these days while being a rallying cry at the same time that is worth being heard.
Score: 9 out of 10
http://www.columbiarecords.com
http://www.johnlegend.com
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