Wake Up! sounds like a match made in heaven: alumnus crooner John Legend got together with Philly favorite The Roots for a politically driven covers album. And the list of artists they pay homage to reads like a who’s who of ‘70s and ‘80s soul: Bill Withers, Donny Hathaway, Roberta Flack, Teddy Pendergrass and Marvin Gaye. Each track carries a message about what’s wrong with the world today and contemplates potential solutions.
So, with such a promising formula, why isn’t this album that great? It’s a bit difficult to say because, as would be expected from these artists, everything is on-point from a technical perspective. Legend can sing and The Roots can play; these aren't in dispute. So when the band launches into a long jam session on Withers’s “I Can’t Write Left Handed,” and Legend helps them out with some informal vocal riffing, there’s no denying the talent at hand.
What’s missing, then, must be the soul. When the original artists sang about issues plaguing the world around them, you could hear each shade of frustration, optimism and resilience in their voices, whereas everything here comes off as too polished. The end result is a collection of seemingly preachy songs thrown together into one context: “Wake Up Everybody,” “Our Generation (The Hope of the World),” “Humanity: Love the Way It Should Be,” and so on and so forth. Had Legend and The Roots pushed harder, this album might have been more memorable. As it stands, this is mostly just radio-friendly fare.
JOHN LEGEND AND THE ROOTS Wake Up! Sounds like: a non-religious gospel hour on the radio Good for: a classy but nondescript coffee shop 99-cent pick: “Humanity (Love the Way it Should Be)” 2.5 Stars
