John Legend’s fifth album takes a turn for the contemplative, and even hints of future fears

by Evan Monroe

It would be stretching the truth considerably to suggest that John Legend happened into a Grammy and Oscar-winning music career, but the 37-year-old, at least in his younger years, certainly looked destined for something else. Born John Rodger Stephens and raised in Springfield Ohio, the son of a factory worker and seamstress, he was home schooled by his mom and showed considerable academic aptitude. Offered scholarships to Harvard and Georgetown University, he attended the University of Pennsylvania where he studied English.

College participation in a coed jazz and a cappella group called Counterparts was a hint as to future passions, and being introduced to Lauryn Hill didn’t hurt either—who enlisted him to play piano on her hit single “Everything Is Everything” from the Platinumselling The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Still, he seemed destined for a career as a management consultant, but in 2001 was introduced to Kanye West, who, among other things, suggested a new moniker for the young performer: John Legend.

Get Lifted, Legend’s first disc, was released in 2004, featuring production by West, will.i.am, and Dave Tozer. It sold 540,000 copies in the U.S. and went on to win the Grammy for Best R&B
Album. Three more albums came over the next decade, capped by the single “All of Me,” from 2013’s Love in the Future, debuting number 4 on the Billboard 200, selling 68,000 copies in its first week, peaking on the Billboard Hot 100 for three consecutive weeks, and finally becoming one of the best-selling digital singles of all time. Then there was the little matter of rapper Common and Legend teaming to produce the hit “Glory” for the Selma movie soundtrack, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Darkness and Light is the fifth studio album by Legend, released on December 2 and featuring guest appearances by Brittany Howard, Chance the Rapper, and Miguel. And whereas Love in the Future required dozens of writers and producers, the new disc was pretty much entirely produced by one man, Blake Mills. The result is a simpler, sweeter, more hopeful work in its early cuts (particularly “Love Me Now,” informed—if its official video is any indication— by Legend’s love for wife Chrissy Teigen), but quickly grows more hushed, and one can’t help but think that the artist’s frequently articulated political concerns have made him anxious… and a little frightened. In any case, it’s his most compelling work yet.