I’ve always seen people say that she can’t sing at all and I didn’t know it was a large number of people who felt that way. I remember Coko(SWV) saying something similar a few years ago but after her son played some songs for her she retracted her statement and said she didn’t know she could sing “like that”

Anyway, what are your thoughts?

The gorgeous singer was feted in a surprise birthday bash planned by her husband, music manager, Anthony "Ant" Wilson, and her children. Icons of the Atlanta music scene, Usher, Jermaine Dupri, Dallas Austin (who signed Monica when she was 12 years old) and Polow Da Don were also in attendance. It's really lovely to see artists like Monica, who has been in the industry since she was a young girl, age with grace. Happy Birthday to her!

For me, it’s “You Gets No Love” by Faith Evans, specifically the explicit version. When Faith gets to that rap, especially the part about rocking her stuff and not knocking it, I swear she was feeling herself and I love it! 😭😂 Calling herself a diva with clout? She knew what she was bringing to the table. I don’t think people talk enough about how good she was on that verse!

Who else comes to mind? 👀 I wanna hear those songs where the singer got on the mic and let everybody know not to play with them. 😂

For me, it’s this one. This song is wild, especially Erin’s verse. I’d be sick af 🤣

Happy belated to Tevin Campbells Im Ready, was hyped to find this at the bottom of the $1 CDs crate

I’ve been going back through Keyshia Cole’s albums lately, and I feel like *Calling All Hearts* deserves more love. 😭 I still remember her being on *106 & Park* when she premiered the videos for “I Ain’t Thru” and “Long Way Down.” She performed “Long Way Down” and “Tired of Doing Me” around that time, too. I remember all of that from when the album came out!

Listening to it now, I can appreciate it in a way I probably didn’t back then. It’s definitely different from her first three albums. *The Way It Is* and *Just Like You* had that raw, emotional sound, and *A Different Me* had a softer, more sensual vibe. *Calling All Hearts* feels more laid-back, with a lot of slow jams and relationship songs.

“Long Way Down,” “Take Me Away,” and “If I Fall in Love Again” with Faith Evans are some of the songs I go back to. “I Ain’t Thru” with Nicki Minaj is another one that takes me straight back to 2010.

I don’t see this album get brought up as much as her other projects, and I feel like it deserves more appreciation.

For those of y’all who listened to *Calling All Hearts*, what are your favorite songs on the album? Are there any tracks you feel deserved more attention, or songs you appreciate more now than you did when it first came out?

I wanted to believe Pharrell could help bring back the old John Legend on Muse, and to his credit, he does... Kind of at least.

I'll just say right out of the gate, Muse is definitely John Legend's (JL) best album since Love in the Future. But what does that really mean for the album quality wise?

It may be a bit of a shock to some people that haven't been following JL's career the last decade or so, but JL has kind of lost his placement as one of R&B/Soul's "premier acts". JL's first four solo albums (Get Lifted - LITF) were all successful and celebrated R&B/Soul albums. I know some didn't love his third album Evolver, but compared to what he's released in the last decade plus, Evolver has earned its flowers, even if Evolver doesn't deserve a full bouquet like Get Lifted, Once Again and LITF do. Through the LITF album, JL was almost universally loved and celebrated in the R&B community.

But things started to change drastically when John separated from Kanye. Kanye West is a very controversial artist (rightfully so), but I don't think anyone can deny his musical talent, at least when he was in his prime. Kanye was the executive produce for all of John's first 5 albums, as he was signed to Kanye's GOOD Music label, and Kanye was a major contributor to 4 of those 5 albums. The last of those five albums was Darkness and Light, the follow up to LITF. While Darkness and Light still has Kanye credited as a executive producer, Kanye had little to no actual involvement in the making of the album, and was only credited as a executive producer simply because it was John's last album on the GOOD Music label, before moving over to Columbia for two albums, and then eventually Republic where he is now. For all intents and purposes, Kanye hasn't been legitimately involved in a JL album since LITF.

Darkness and Light was the start of JL's fall off, and that fall off has continued through Muse. Darkness and Light was the first JL album that he kind of abandoned the R&B/Soul sound he had become known and loved for, in favor of a much more bland, lounge music, Pop sound. To be fair, Darkness and Light isn't a inherently bad album, but it is a completely different sound for John, and if you were a fan of his earlier work, this isn't going to sound like that at all. JL stopped working with Kanye and Will.I.Am, and started working with odd choices like Blake Mills, a Country/Rock/Americana producer and Ryan Tedder, another "Pop/Rock" producer. This also coincided with John going for a more "mainstream" approach by becoming a regular "coach" on the reality talent show, "The Voice". I bring this up, because I don't think its a coincidence that suddenly JL decides to ditch the R&B/Soul sound he's become known for in favor of a more "mainstream Pop" sound, right around the time he starts appearing on the Voice. His sound has never been the same since. Darkness and Light, Bigger Love, and LEGEND all suffer from the same problem... an absolute lack of the R&B/Soul sound that made John popular. Again, thats not to say they are all terrible albums, as I do believe for what they are aiming to be, they are well produced and well crafted albums. Its just what they are aiming to be, isn't what JL had built his sound around up to that point. I'm sure there are people that enjoy these albums, but I doubt its the same people that loved Get Lifted and Once Again. It should also be mentioned that shockingly, JL's attempt to go "Pop/Mainstream", didn't exactly connect with his fanbase, as all three of these albums, were commercial failures compared to his first four classic albums. No hit singles. No radio play. No album sales. Hell, his last album prior to Muse, LEGEND, only made it to #66 on the Billboard 200, and completely fell off the charts in only its second week. Thats WILD for a artist of JL's caliber. Just goes to show you, that going "Pop/Mainstream" doesn't always translate...

So now we arrive to Muse, his first new album in four years. And Muse is a crystal clear attempt to win back those "old John Legends fans", because let's be honest, John Legend needs them desperately at this point, or he might not be able to sell tickets to even a small bar venue. Like I mentioned earlier, Muse is entirely produced by Pharrell Williams, which honestly, wouldn't be my first choice for a JL album, but its definitely better than Blake fucking Mills and Ryan Tedder. But the results are a super mixed bag. Like I said earlier, Muse is without a doubt JL's best album since Love in the Future, but that's really not saying much, as every other album since LITF has failed to meet expectations. Thankfully, John does ditch the lounge music in favor of more snappy, up beat, almost burlesque style "Soul" songs like the stomping opener "Muse" and the marching band emanating "I'll Pray For Ya". John also gets shockingly dark and emotional, and dare I say personal on the tracks "Are You Ok?", "Bodies on the Floor" and "Doing Me". These are probably the three best cuts off the album, as they show a side of John we've never heard before, or at least haven't heard in a very long time. He sounds passionate. He sounds hurt. He sounds angry. I personally think these three songs should have been sequenced together, because they all are cut from the same, dark and emotional cloth. Pharrell provides great backdrops for these three songs, and its the most "varied" his production sounds on the album. These are break up/divorce songs, that cut so deep, I actually started to wonder if there might be some trouble in paradise with John and his wife Chrissy Tiegan. Seriously, I was legitimately shocked by how raw and dark these three songs get. "Doing Me" is basically 3 minutes of John telling everyone to fuck off, I'm focusing on ME and ME only. "Doing Me" is basically the post divorce, angry single father tell off song. And "Are You Ok?" and "Bodies on the Floor" are the scenes of WHY they are getting divorced. These were some of the best John Legend songs I've heard since LITF, and Muse deserves credit for that.

Where Muse ultimately falters, and unfortunately fails to stick the landing is in its lack of almost any romantic songs. The first single "Daylight" and the album closer "Sail Away" are the only two songs on the entire album that offer any sort of romantic, love centric vibes, and both are pretty mid. Neither are bad, and they achieve what they set out to achieve, but neither really stand out either. "Sail Away" is as close to a babymaker as we get on the album, and it still doesn't reach true babymaker status unfortunately, which could've helped the album tremendously.

Another negative as well is unfortunately something I was worried about when they first announced the album was entirely produced by Pharrell, and thats that the procution does hit some low points on the album. Pharrell isn't the same producer he used to be, and not having Chad is starting to really show. The production on the album just starts to sound too same-y about mid way through the project. Its all too snappy and bouncy. There isn't enough diverse sounds from song to song to help differentiate the sounds of the album. Outside of a couple of standouts, everything sonically just kinda blends together. And theres a handful of just flat out boring songs (Under the Bridge, Her, Get Back and Next Time) that could have easily been cut and no one would have noticed. I thought the Pharrell team up would at least revive John's R&B side, and it did, but not to the extent I'd hoped for.

Ultimately, what I said at the beginning of my review stands true. Muse is definitely John Legend's best album in well over a decade, and he does at least halfway return to the R&B/Soul sound on the album! Unfortunately, theres still just too much boring filler and bland, copy and paste production on the album for me to consider Muse a true "comeback" for John Legend. It's not a bad album by any means. In fact, its aggressively average honestly. Sadly, I doubt I will return to this album often, if at all, despite it still being John's best work in over a decade. It hurts to admit this, but I think Muse confirmed what we all feared, and thats that the "Old John Legend" is likely never coming back...

I rate Muse a 6/10.

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Going solo to this - holla at me if you would like to meet before/at the venue. (38M)