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Dec 1, 2016As always, his perfectly raspy croon is the connective tissue, but it’s an awkward match on pop plays like the uplifting-anthem-by-numbers “Love Me Now” and the synth-heavy “What You Do to Me,” co-written with hitmakers Justin Tranter and Julia Michaels. Those tracks aside, Legend is mostly in his soulful comfort zone.
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Dec 12, 2016A late 2016 highlight.
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Dec 2, 2016Each track has its own kind of burning intensity. The album's front, back, and inner photos are in black-and-white, but the music evokes rich shades of yellow, orange, and red.
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Dec 1, 2016It never quite lands where you think it’s going to, and for all its occasional missteps, Darkness and Light pleasingly suggests that, six albums in, John Legend’s musical career might have started doing the same thing.
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Dec 1, 2016With a producer and co-writer from outside the usual precincts of pop and hip-hop--the guitarist Blake Mills, who has worked with Alabama Shakes and Fiona Apple--Mr. Legend’s music turns less glossy: earthier and often spookier.
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Dec 19, 2016Darkness and Light comes off balanced and bursting with humility knowing and being what it is--mainstream soul framed by pop parameters.
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Dec 8, 2016Much moodier than he’s ever been, it feels as though John Legend has musically turned a corner with these 12 songs, if for no other reason than the supposed reality that in an artistic setting, feeling bad is infinitely more interesting than feeling good.
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Dec 5, 2016Darkness and Light isn’t the political feat Mills and Legend had hoped for, but it’s a step forward in the singer’s evolution. He may never be a firebrand, but Legend proves there’s still strength in humility.
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Dec 7, 2016The contrasts of the title are evident throughout John Legend’s latest album--in the push and pull between devotion and desire, indulgence and empowerment, and musically in the dialectic between comforting familiarity and exploratory urges.
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Dec 8, 2016Darkness and Light loses its depth, however, when Legend skews toward pop (see: “Love Me Now”), even if these songs do maintain a catchy candor. Fortunately for the album, they’re rare and few.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 30 out of 43
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Mixed: 3 out of 43
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Negative: 10 out of 43
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Dec 6, 2016
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Dec 6, 2016
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Dec 6, 2016