Get Lifted - Legend, John (CD 2005)

I thought for sure it must be a sample. That slithery guitar line on the song Alright , the one I remembered from that self-released live CD I bought off John Legend s website a couple months ago, the one Dave Tozer played with such methodical precision only now, it s played on my gawd, what is that? Is that a tuba? It can t be a tuba. It sounds like a tuba. Must be a sample, right? Let me check the liners.

Damn! It s a friggin tuba! Producer Kanye West, also known as Mr. 2005 Grammy Awards, heard that snaking guitar line, the one that sounded pretty cool, but also just a tad bit generic, just a teensy-weensy bit too much like any number of slithery guitar hooks from any number of too many other fine and not-so-fine R&B radio hits of the last half-decade or so; and at some point decided that that guitar line would sound oh-so-fine

played on a tuba.

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I have been waiting with an equal measure of thrilled expectation and dread for the delayed-many-times-over release of John Legend s debut studio album Get Lifted. I have worked hard to prepare myself to judge this album on its own merits, to hear it for what it is (that is, a hip-hop flavored R&B record, which, by the way, features many songs I have already fallen in love with in spare, live arrangements) and to not fault it for what is isn t (that is, the mind-bogglingly wonderful self-released live record The Solo Sessions: Live at the Knitting Factory).

And as if to drive the point home for a stubborn kind of fellow like myself, the kind of fellow who has insisted in not one but two previous Epinions posts that he would more than likely be disappointed in Legend s first studio album, Kanye West, also known as The Artist Trying Too Hard Not To Be The Overrated Non-Artist Lauryn Hill Became, has gone and outsourced Dave Tozer s perfectly serviceable guitar line (as heard on the Live at SOB s disc) to Jose Barboza, Jr. A friggin tuba player.

How can I not dig that?

And how can I not dig the expansive treatment erstwhile Black-Eyed Pea will.i.am, also known as The Artist Who Sold His Soul for Crossover Appeal and Got a Spot on the Democratic National Convention Stage for his Troubles, brings to "She Don't Have to Know", my absolute favorite of the many songs Legend has written and performed on the topic of romantic infidelity the layered vocals, the dramatic arc created by the song s shifting dynamics. Sure, a little of the winking wit Legend (also known as the Artist Heretofore Known as John Stephens) brings to lines about holding hands publicly gets a little buried in the mix, but everything else about it is so wonderful, so snazzy, so stylish I mean, really. How can I not dig it?

And sure, guest raps by Kanye and Snoop are both pretty underwhelming, and the single released to herald this album s imminent arrival back in the fall, Used to Love U isn t really anything special, especially when placed in the company of songs like Number One , with its ecstatic Curtis Mayfield samples, but how can I not dig the man s urbane George Benson rasp on the title track, his charismatic ad-libs, his pitch-perfect vocal climaxes, his silky, jazzman vibrato on the gorgeous piano ballad So High ? How can I not feel a cascade of inner hallelujahs hearing something so softly, so sweetly, so sincerely rendered as Refuge (When It s Cold Outside) , and how can I, Paul Lorentz, also known as The Artist Most Likely to Get Goosebumps Whenever He Hears a Big Family Singing Together how can I not totally dig that John Stephens (also known as the Artist Hereafter Known as John Legend) brings his whole fam-damily (numbering a dozen and a half) into the studio for a song ( It Don t Have to Change ) about how awesome it is to be part of a Big Family Singing Together.

Gives me chills, it does. And how can I not dig that? I can t not dig that.

And therefore I totally dig John Legend s Get Lifted, also known as The Last Seriously Awesome CD of 2004.

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BECAUSE YOU NEED TO KNOW:

Get Lifted by John Legend
Columbia Records
Released 12/28/04

Producers: Kanye West, John Legend, will.i.am, Dave Tozer, DeVon Devo Harris
53 min.

SONGS: Prelude Let s Get Lifted - Used to Love U - She Don t Have to Know Number One I Can Change Ordinary People Stay With You Let s Get Lifted Again So High Refuge (When It s Cold Outside) It Don t Have to Change Live It Up

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MORE JOHN LEGEND:

The Solo Sessions: Live at the Knitting Factory (2004)

John Stephens: Live at SOB's (2003)