Wake Up!

by John Legend and The Roots

I've been giving this a lot of play in the last couple of months.  I love the Roots, and while I've never bought a John Legend album before, I can appreciate his talent.

What I like about this album is that Legend and the Roots have selected a number of older songs they deemed deserving of an update for the 21st century.  They talk in the liner notes about the optimism they felt at the beginning of the Obama administration's tenure in Washington, and while most peoples' (perhaps too lofty) expectations have not exactly been lived up to, there is much of that moment echoed in these songs and tracks.

This is a very soulful and funky disk, and while the title song gets on my nerves a little with its overly-earnest message, the rest of the album is just about perfect.  Few of the songs stand out to me as individual pieces - 'Hard Times', 'I Can't Write Left Handed', and 'Little Ghetto Boy' are favourites - but the overall aesthetic of the album is very effective.  I love the Roots.