John Legend’s new album: LEGEND 

⅗ stars

John Legend’s newest record, LEGEND, is a victim of the forever rising epidemic of quantity over quality. With 24 tracks adding up to one hour and 21 minutes, LEGEND is packed full of completely average songs. From the very beginning, the record follows a formula of substanceless “romantically charged” lyrics over inoffensive instrumentals that seem to come from the 2020 Macy’s pop factory. The bass is weak and the drums are heavily imbued with claps, just what you expect from a catchy Target commercial. 

Legend’s voice gets pretty old about 30 minutes in, and the main thing giving any of these songs replayability are the features. Many of the features are more or less average (The Rick Ross feature on Rounds being the only one that was noticeably bad), but some stick out in a great way. JID’s feature on the third track, Dope, is a great verse and elevates the song to the best on the album and the only one I would willingly listen to again. Muni Long’s verse of Honey was also good and marks another high point on the album.

Overall, the album is better than average but not quite good. Many of the songs sound almost identical, and absolutely nothing on LEGEND could be considered groundbreaking or even unique. But the songs aren’t bad and are certainly great background music for shopping. If you’re a John Legend fan, stop lying; if you aren’t, maybe check it out.