Artist: John Legend & The Roots
Title: Wake Up!
Label: Columbia
Genre / Style: Pop
Release Date: 21.09.2010
Format: Album / mp3
Language: Eng
Play Time: 72:47 min
Size: 166 MB
AUDIO
Format: MPEG Audio
Format version: Version 1
Format profile: Layer 3
Mode: Joint stereo
Mode extension: MS Stereo
Duration: 1h 12mn
Bit rate mode: Constant
Bit rate: 320 Kbps
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Stream size: 167 MiB (100%)
Writing library: LAME3.97
TRACKLIST:
1. John Legend & The Roots feat. Black Thought – Hard Times
2. John Legend & The Roots – Compared To What
3. John Legend & The Roots fea. Common & Melanie Fiona – Wake Up Everybody
4. John Legend & The Roots feat. CL Smooth – Our Generation (The Hope Of The World)
5. John Legend & The Roots feat. Malik Yusef – Little Ghetto Boy (Prelude)
6. John Legend & The Roots feat. Black Thougth – Little Ghetto Boy
7. John Legend & The Roots – Hang On In There
8. John Legend & The Roots – Humanity (Love The Way It Should Be)
9. John Legend & The Roots – Wholy Holy
10.John Legend & The Roots – I Can’t Write Left Handed
11.John Legend & The Roots – I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
12.John Legend & The Roots – Shine
13.John Legend & The Roots – Shine (Waiting For Superman Version)
14.John Legend & The Roots – Wake Up Everybody (Live In Studio Performance)
If you appreciate 1960s and '70s Soul music, live instrumentation, socio-political songs, or just plain old great music, then Wake Up!, an album teaming R&B crooner John Legend with legendary hip-hop band The Roots, is a must-hear. The album's concept, which resulted from Legend becoming more politically minded during and after the events that led up to Barack Obama's election as the 44th President of the United States, manages to somehow pull off the incredibly difficult task of being both message-minded and inviting. Wake Up!, released on Sept. 21, 2010, is clearly one of the best albums of the year.
Wake Up! is a collection of remakes of mostly little-known social and political songs that were recorded in the 1960s and '70s. And right from the album's opening track, "Hard Times," it's clear that John Legend and The Roots have created something special. "Hard Times," which was originally on the first and only album by Baby Huey & the Babysitters, The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend, is a funky rock-Soul track that finds both Legend and The Roots at the top of their games. Despite the topic, which is about how it can seem like the whole world is against you and is conspiring to keep you down, Legend manages to sound strong and even defiant, while The Roots' instrumentation is crisp, clean, clear and direct.
And the album's full of songs that are about bad situations, and manages to make you live through each of them and come through the other side feeling stronger and perhaps even energized. Another outstanding track is the Legend/Roots cover of Bill Withers' anti-Vietnam War "I Can't Write Left Handed." The song, which tells the story of a combat veteran who needs help writing a letter to his mother because he's been wounded in action, is an almost 12-minute tale of woe, sorrow and depression. But it's also an inspiring, moving and uplifting tale that's filled strength and dignity.
Also deserving special mention is the remake of Ernie Hines' funky "Our Generation (the Hope of the World)," a song about making the world a better place to live. "Our generation, it's all left up to us/Our generation, let's do just what we must, we gotta straighten it out," Legend sings.
ENJOY!