Album Review: Wake Up! by John Legend & The Roots

Cover albums are tough, and The Roots and John Legend made it even tougher by choosing to cover soul based songs from the 60s & 70s that have a place for themselves in our social conscience.  I'm sure when I tell my wife that John Legend has a new cover version of "Wake Up Everybody" she's going to be angry.  Songs like these hold a special place in the hearts of people who have latched onto them. 

So why make cover albums at all, and especially one like this that can get so many people worked up?  Well as artists The Roots and John Legend feel they can expose a new generation of people to this music that has had such a strong influence on their lives.  In this case not just musical influence, but also social influence.  Let's face it if you make a collection album no young people will buy it, but if you put John Legend on it and have The Roots back him, you have the potential to reach a large youth audience. 

That all being said, they picked some really hard songs to cover.  If you listen to the originals of all these songs one thing is constant, they were all sung by brilliant artists.  In my mind this collection of songs puts much more pressure on John Legend than it does The Roots.  All they have to do is remix the sound and provide a modern template.  Legend has to try and match performances like Marvin Gaye doing "Wholy Holy," quite simply an impossible task. 

I have to say though that John Legend met the task.  This album exposes his limits as a singer, but he seems to understand those as well and work around them.  The range of songs he's moving through shows that he can bring different emotions and different voices and not be intimidated by what he's being asked to do. 

For me there are a few real misses, like "Wholy Holy," not sure why they didn't do something like "Inner City Blues," but for the most part it works. 

I could see throwing this album on for a night of coffee and conversation, mixed with versions of all the originals.  That would be fun. 

Following the Rhapsody rating method I give it 3 out of 5 stars for Pretty Good.