John Legend: Evolver

Evolver, the third studio album from piano-tickling

loverman John Legend, gets off to a phenomenal start with "Green Light," a

knockout first single that sounds like the soundtrack to the first coffeehouse

on Mars. Over spacey synth lines and subtle drum-and-bass flourishes, Legend

captures the giddy intoxication of infatuation, while Andre 3000 steals the

track and the album with a slippery, free-associative rap that captures the

OutKast icon at his loosest and goofiest. It's the rare freestyle rap that

actually sounds spontaneous. Andre is clearly having a ball rapping, an

occasion as glorious as it is rare. From there, Legend seductively explores the

various permutations of love. On the next track, "It's Over," he delivers a

gently funky kiss-off to a dumped lover neither aided nor hindered by a

Vocoder-crazed Kanye West getting busy with the clumsy pop-culture references,

and on "Quickly," Legend audaciously posits the impending end of the world as

the perfect excuse for eschewing elaborate mating rituals in favor of getting

right down to business sexually. Evolver's second half goes a little heavy on

sleepy ballads, but reaches outside Legend's comfort zone of slick romance for

the simultaneously mawkish and inspiring "If You're Out There," which delivers an

Obama-tastic message of hope. Smooth to a fault, Evolver solidifies Legend's

standing in the pantheon of good soul singers, but greatness continues to elude

him.