Track Listing

1. Save Room
2. Heaven
3. Stereo
4. Show Me
5. Each Day Gets Better
6. PDA (We Just Don't Care)
7. Slow Dance
8. Again
9. Maxine
10. Where Did My Baby Go
11. Maxine's Interlude
12. Another Again
13. Coming Home

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1897 in Music
• Released on: 2007-02-26
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
It takes guts, if not outright egomania, to abandon your given surname and adopt a loaded one like Legend, but the former John Stephens must have sensed that loftiness would one day be his calling card. Once Again, the follow-up to the Grammy-gobbling, platinum pile-on that was Get Lifted, surpasses expectations. Not that it bears much relation to its predecessor. Again again trots out a stable of talented, modern-minded producers--Raphael Saadiq, Legend comrade Kanye West and the unsinkable will.i.am--but it's nowhere near as self-conscious about embracing the old-school as the knowing, R&B edge-skimming Lifted. Don't expect a derivative mash of smudgy, nostalgia-filching sounds, though, because despite its retro leanings, what's in store somehow crackles with currency. Call it neo-retro if you must, but never call it unimaginative: first single "Save Room" coasts, drifts and floats along a ponderous path spiked by a cool keyboard-y crescendo; second single "Heaven" busts out a big, busy beat over a slow seduction; and a couple of selections--"Each Day Gets Better" and "PDA"--are so bright and twirly they seem custom-made for dizzy love scenes or jaunty, sunny-day skips through the park. Maybe the most unusual track is "Show Me," a rock song that pilfers elements of Hendrix and finds Legend climbing a few octaves to sound, weirdly, like Jeff Buckley, but it works: so slippery is its beat and so affecting are its hope-laced lyrics that, oddness aside, it's among the disc's best. Sandwiched as it is among 14 songs that all sound like future classics, that's saying something. --Tammy La Gorce

Customer Reviews

Solid follow-up album
More of the same from John Legend. Some stand out tracks such as p.d.a have to balance out some rather typical "samey" R&B standards.
Not bad.

From the Church to Broadway.....
It's a shame that people thinking of buying this album will probably not get as far as my review as they will read the first half-dozen or so reviews before me and decide that this is a record worth purchasing. And they still may feel this when they listen to it unless they are used to listening to decent, proper soul music.

I'm sorry John, but you've really made a turkey here and I'm sure you'll admit it when your career is up. His first album, 'Gift Lifted', was fantastic; a great modern day crucible of soul, pop, hip-hop and gospel. Songs like 'I can change', 'Live it up' and 'She don't have to know' (the latter utilising, without simply plagarising, an old Sly and the Family Stone bassline to brilliant effect). This on the other hand verges, except on a few occasions, on saccharine pop. Where 'Gift Lifted' was rooted in the Church, 'Once Again' has John walking brazenly down broadway; he's gone from Sam Cooke to Tony Bennett (as can been seen from the covers of the respective albums).

This is shown in tracks like the laughable 'Maxine' and 'Where did my Baby go' - the latter more fitting for Will Young then a potential Mesiah of modern Soul. There are two songs that would be worthy of the first album. 'Save Room' has a great rift and is deserving of a single release and 'Slow Dance' is a great slice of Motown Seventies soul (but without sounding like you have heard it before).

'Each day gets better' and 'P.D.A' are OK, but you are always hoping that John will write a song about something other than love and relationships.

Rather than buying this get hold of some Van Hunt or Anthony Hamilton and hope that John puts this album behind him and comes back with a return to form for his 3rd effort.

"I don't care about propriety / Let's break the rules / Forget society.",
His explicit banner doesn't string high enough to pull off the mischievous boast of "P.D.A.": to place Legend as a bad boy. Instead this album places Legend on doing throwback to clean-cut crooners like say ....Smokey Robinson, which makes him once again, an appealing singer-songwriter and a legend in the making. Even though Kanye West shifts his cocky nature further into the corner this still comes out a great album. "Once Again" is defiantly more low-key and less bold than his debut album. But I think his new album is far more ambitious. Usually with more ambition comes a higher degree of difficulty. Once I gave this album a second round I fell madly in love with it.

From the opening track "Save Room" to the last emotionally thoughtful track "Coming Home" this album is great and I'll say it again....... It's great! I can listen to this entire album without skipping one track. I love most of the tracks but some of the best cuts are from Legend's vintage soul era and several Motown-styled tracks produced by Will.I.Am -- "Each Day Gets Better," "Save Room," of course and "Slow Dance" -- is well suited to Legend's classic soul vocals. "Stereo," "Show Me," and "Where Did My Go," are just as beautiful as well as lyrically stimulating because he manages to have you sing right along side with him.

After hearing this album it proves to be a successful second coming. I don't consider it a disappointment in the least. You have to applaud and appreciate an artist that's not afraid to walk the beat of their own drum (so goes the saying). To me it would have been way too easy to make another "Get Lifted," so instead of taking the easy way he decided to shift gear, take on to this challenge and managed to executed it very well.

I'm glad to have this album and I also support his desire to try new things and explore other areas of music while still maintaining his R&B roots. Legend might lose a lot of dedicated fans regarding this album but a lot new fans can accommodate those vacant areas and then some. Much Love John.