Here in the 21st century, where R&B artists chief concern tends to be getting busy in the club, it can be easy to forget that soul music was once a vital source of incisive social commentary. On Wake Up!, John Legend teams up with The Roots to pay tribute to the conscious classics of the 1960s and '70s, covering songs by the likes of Marvin Gaye ("Wholly Holy"), Curtis Mayfield ("Hard Times," most famously covered by Baby Huey and the Babysitters), Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes ("Wake Up Everybody") and Bill Withers ("I Can't Write Left Handed") that reflected the upheaval, conflict, activism and despair of that era.

Musically, this is the equivalent of a Darryl Dawkins slam-dunk: Legend and the Roots certainly have the chops, soul and excellent taste necessary to pull off a project like this without rendering the material slick or anodyne; even on the few occasions when they drastically re-tool a song (like Eugene McDaniels's "Compared to What," a 1969 hit for Les McCann and Eddie Harris) or add feature emcee spots from Common, CL Smooth or the Roots' Black Thought, the performances remain true to the sound,… read more »