John Legend "Save Room"

On "Save Room" (mp3), John Legend has for whatever reason excised any traditionally recognizable remnant of soul from his voice (of the smidgen that was originally there, admittedly) and replaced it with a simulacrum (er, a "soulmalacrum" ha ha) of David Clayton-Thomas from Blood, Sweat and Tears. However, the facts that there are 1.) an organ line (and, well, entire opening section) that sounds like something from the Classics IV or the Association, 2.) some "ba-yah-ba-ba" female singers who sound like, you guessed it, the Fifth Dimension, and 3.) a vaguely Chuck Mangione trumpet line toward the end make the vocal reference not too anomalous after all. But when there's added a 4.) slick, crunchy, and very new-sounding guitar lead-in to the chorus, it emerges that this is John Legend, and he's trying to make an anachronistic genre piece, like the Roots doing an album with the guy from Sugarloaf or something. There's nary a crumb of soul to be found here, but there are a lot of individual components that, if you asked them, would say that they've heard soul music at some point in their lives. It's hip elevator music for guys that say they liked Chicago Transit Authority and Cloud Nine. It's also on a big-ass label that no doubt expects returns from an artist of Legend's stature, and by those standards it could be considered a pretty big risk. I mean, are people going to buy this? How close is this to an All-Anglo representation of Wyclef? I mean, I've listened to the song about 20 times now and it hasn't worn on me yet. It's a gimmick, right? When will it wear off, dear readers? When? Is the fact that I still like "Spooky" and "Green-Eyed Lady" as much as the first time I heard them a bad omen?

Buy Once Again here.