The R&B singer's new album offers a lovely balance between his signature sentimentality and inevitable gloom, with a pinch of noir.
John Legend/ Darkness and Light
What do you do after you gifted the world with one of the most swooning, saccharine love ballads that seems to soundtrack every wedding? Well, if you're anything like John Legend, you'd probably come up with something similar to his latest studio offering, Darkness and Light. As suggested by its title, Legend's fifth outing aims to counteract the oozing mawkishness that is his 2013's smash, All of Me, with a sense of doom. Helmed by Blake Mills, the producer behind the Southern soul flourishes of Jim James' terrific Eternally Even, it also arrives with guest appearances by Alabama Shakes' vocalist Brittany Howard, Chance the Rapper and Miguel.
Wasting no time dilly-dallying, Legend dives headlong into it, declaring on the opening line of piano-driven I Know Better: "They say sing what you know, but I've sung what they want/Some folks do what they're told, but this time, baby, I won't." It's a kind of defiance that fuelled 2010's Wake Up!, his Grammy Award-winning collaborative album with hip-hop ensemble The Roots. Penthouse Floor follows with good helpings of funk basslines complete with a rap verse supplied by Chance the Rapper.
The title track pitches the singer-songwriter against vocal powerhouse Brittany Howard, yielding an impassioned duet laced with a substantial amount of gospel grittiness. "Darkness and light, streaming, the end of our life beginning/No longer alone, my will become gone, we melt into one," the pair sing off one another as if their lives depended on it. Offering a quiet respite, R&B crooner Miguel brings his suave sensuality to the play on Overload whereas Love Me Now and What You Do to Me are obviously engineered to conquer the Top 40 charts with their super glossy pop production.
Surefire finds Legend clinging on to a failing relationship -- the theme that runs through tracks like Temporarily Painless, How Can I Blame You and Same Old Story. Right by You (for Luna) is a love letter to his daughter, albeit from an anxiety-ridden angle ("Will you live like me, in a world run by desire?/Will you wake from worldly dream and not be tired?/Will we do right by you? Will we you have what you require/To make your days on this Earth not so dire?). Meanwhile, Marching Into the Dark concludes the album with the political hopelessness shared by so many records that came out this year.
If All of Me is a maudlin fest based on some fairytale notion of an unconditional love, Darkness and Light is a more realistic approach to navigating through life and relationships. It takes courage to accept that all good things must one day come to an end and to trust in the knowledge that for every darkness there will eventually be light.
THE PLAYLIST
Honon/ Monsoon
We've featured more than a handful of intriguing new Thai bands this year, but it looks like Honon might just be our top favourite act yet. Made up of Rattaporn "Hon" Boontongdee and Solos "On" Sirichote, the duo play a handpan, a convex steel drum played entirely by hands (hence the name). Their latest offering, Monsoon, is a rousing instrumental piece that reflects the volatile, yet calming nature of the rainy season as well as showcases the pair's adept musicality. Can't get enough? You're in luck because there's more where this comes from on Draw, the duo's stellar debut full-length album available now on Bandcamp.
The Killers/ I'll Be Home for Christmas
It's that time of the year again, folks, when Christmas albums descend upon us like a pesky mistletoe. Here's one from American rock quartet The Killers, a prolific churner of Christmas jams since 2006. Released as part of Product Red, the campaign to Fight against AIDS in Africa, I'll Be Home For Christmas is a bizarre, Western-themed, spoken-word cover of Bing Crosby's classic of the same name. The track appears on the group's Don't Waste Your Wishes, a compilation of holiday-themed singles they released over the last 10 years.
Paul Simon (feat Nico Segal)/ Stranger
Living legend Paul Simon teams up with Nico Segal, formerly Donnie Trumpet, on his latest cut Stranger. Produced by The Social Experiment's Nate Fox, the track is a mash-up of The Werewolf and The Clock, both numbers taken from Simon's June record, Stranger to Stranger. Introduced by Segal's sensual trumpet lines, the song slides over a languorous R&B melody with Simon delivering the lines in his signature casual tone: "Life is a lottery, a lot of people lose/And the winners, the grinners, with money-coloured eyes/Eat all the nuggets, then they order extra fries."
Raleigh Ritchie/ Unicron Loev
After dropping his excellent debut album You're A Man Now, Boy earlier this year, British R&B crooner Raleigh Ritchie is back with a new tune called Unicron Loev. Lifted from his forthcoming five-track EP, Mind the Gap, the dyslexically-titled jam relies on an uber-chill electro-R&B backdrop and a playful vocal gimmick where the penultimate syllables occasionally get distorted. "I believe in miracles/I believe in magic," he muses, signalling a subtle key change that works brilliantly with the rest of the song.
OK Go/ The One Moment
Known for their insanely nifty music videos, American indie-pop outfit OK Go have done it again with their latest single, The One Moment. Lifted from their 2014's fourth studio album, Hungry Ghosts, the song sounds a bit like an insipid cross between Coldplay and OneRepublic with its stadium rock guitars and anthemic chorus. The video, however, is an entirely different story as it's basically a slowed-down version of a fleeting scene captured in 4.2 seconds. Mind-blowing stuff. Now, if only these guys would make music just as innovative as their videos.
