Artist: John Legend & The Roots
In fact, the single best thing that could come out of this collaboration is a new generation's discovering the soul greats of the late 1960s and early 1970s. My biggest problem with Wake Up! -- supposedly conceived during Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, which of course stirred up feelings of revolutionary thinking and fighting back among those of us who aren't neo-cons crazies -- is that it's not angry enough. At least not angry enough to match the intensity of many of the originals covered here.
There are a couple of exceptions to these by-the-numbers renditions, though: Especially the eight-minute workout of Withers' anti-war tune "I Can't Write Left-Handed" is powerful and features a dirty guitar solo by The Roots' Cap'n Kirk Douglas. Also, opening track "Compared to What" ("Trying to make it real / Compared to what") is performed with a funky urgency missing on much of the rest of the record.
Legend's voice is in fine form on Wake Up!, but he's almost too silky smooth for the subject matter of these tunes. Even The Roots (who sounded so potent on their excellent How I Got Over, from earlier this summer) don't do enough to punch up these soul classics.
This project had the potential to be a home run, but, in the end, it's lacking the emotional muscle you'd hope from what is ostensibly a neo-protest record.
John Legend & The Roots - Our Generation
Best song: The aforementioned "I Can't Write Left Handed"
Rotation: Medium-heavy
"Nothing Not New" is a yearlong project in which New Times editorial operations manager Jay Bennett, a 41-year-old music fan and musician, will listen only to music released in 2010. Each Monday through Friday, he will listen to one new record (no best ofs, reissues, or concert recordings) and write about it. Why? Because in the words of his editor, Martin Cizmar, he suffers from "aesthetic atrophy," a wasting away of one's ability to embrace new and different music as one ages. Read more about this all-too-common ailment here.
