John Legend likes to sing about love. He has been doing it since his debut album Get Lifted, and continues to do it on this LP. But that's what makes this album, to me at least, so endearing; it not only is an album full of love songs, but it is also a passionate and sometimes downright inspirational album about love. Which is refreshing in a world where pop music needs to paint love in a way that makes everything a struggle, or something that ends terribly. Granted, that is a very real aspect of love, but it's refreshing to hear someone sing about the positives of love in a way that makes it seem like the only perfect thing in the world.
In a way, John Legend reminds me of soul singers from the late 50's and early 60's in this way; his unfaltering devotion to the subject of love may come off as corny sometimes, ( some of the lyrics on this LP do come off that way) he sings so well and with so much sincerity that it's hard to really hate anything about his performance on this LP.
The album starts of with three fantastic tracks, the last being one of my favorite songs of 2013, the immaculately produced and performed "Made To Love", a track that takes one of the most familiar R&B tropes and somehow shines a new light on it, with John singing "I was sent here for you/ We were made to love/ You were sent for me too", so passionately that I can't help but hang on to his every word.
Other great tracks include: "Tomorrow", "Wanna Be Loved" and the closer "Caught Up".
And these tracks carry the same gracefulness that is on display on "Made To Love" and that's no mean feat.
Aside from all of the praise I have for this LP, I do have to point out the fact that, like I said before, the lyrics aren't always great. Tracks like "Dreams" and "Asylum" are actually kind of cringe-worthy at some points and the two features on this LP are pretty underwhelming ( though the fact that one of them is Rick Ross may have something to do with that).However, that didn't stop me from enjoying Love In The Future a whole lot more than I was expecting to.
8.0/10
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