Legend

As in sports, the toughest thing to do is repeat.

After the flourish with which John Legend entered the music scene two years ago, the follow up album was a highly-anticipated offering from the man who brought soulful cool back to the R&B music scene and, with it, became a multi-platinum, Grammy-winning, certified music star.

Legend's first full-length solo venture Get Lifted beautifully flashed the Chicagoan's vocal ability against a brilliantly produced Kanye West musical backdrop; a perfect melding of two of urban music's most talented men and an ideal canvas for Legend to show off his unmistakable tone. The result was a return of classic R&B mixed with just enough pop tendencies to make Get Lifted a commercial and critical success.

With Legend essentially a household name, he returns with Once Again, his second solo effort that lets him step out more on his own. Although Kanye is still there to lay a bulk of the tracks, Legend is left to his own devices lyrically with no thoughts that guest appearances are needed to assist the overall product.

In the end, the second helping of Legend is not entirely like the first serving, but not entirely unlike it either.

The strengths on Get Lifted — Legend's soothing vocals and touch on the keys — are still readily evident on Once Again as is his ability to produce mesmorizing ballads. "Again" is the marquis ballad of the collection and has Legend reflecting on a relationship started out of sin and now ironically wrought with mistrust because of that guilty beginning. As compared to Get Lifted's flagship slow jam, "Ordinary People," it is perhaps not as extraordinary nor as poignant but it still makes a listener stand up and take notice. For those looking for the heart-wrenching feel of "Ordinary People" it lies in "Where Did My Baby Go?", a saccharine-y tale of unrequited love that is not nearly as peurile as the title may suggest.

On that same level, "Coming Home" hits close to the heart as well, a narrative of homes left empty by those off to battle. While it seems destined to back-up a CNN slow-motion montage of Iraq footage, it is nonetheless eloquent and while everyone seemingly wants to jump in with their poetic social commentary, Legend's entry aspires to be more down home than condemning.

As a whole, Once Again seems to lend itself more to Legend's stylings than to those of West, whose inspirations and hip-hop leanings could be felt more on Get Lifted. But that doesn't mean Once Again loses those feelings of the original completely, moreso that Legend is allowed to dip into his roots of funk and neo-soul more than he showed on his first album.

The product, then, is an album more funky and enterprising, one that plays with sound and comes off slightly more experimental while staying true to Legend as an artist. Once Again is less about making a cutting-edge R&B album — been there, done that — and more about producing just a cutting-edge album in general. For all its currentness — and undoubtedly it is current — Once Again is still decidedly nostalgic; as if you took Legend of today back 30 years ago and told Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Hendrix and Minnie Riperton (and whatever friends they could muster) to meet in a studio.

To that end, the sound is more soulful and inventive, mixing multiple genres into one pot before finally producing what could be referred to as neo-retro: A throwback album made for the 21st century and meant to last well beyond.