John Legend – Live At The House Of Blues (Blu-ray)

 

Picture: B+     Sound: B+     Extras: C-     Concert: B-

 

 

John Legend is a fine singer with a likable voice, but for many reasons, he has still not broken wide as a household name.  Why?  Like the more famous Maxwell, part of it is a choice of material that restricts his talents and some other choices of material the singer might like, but he is still slowly gaining ground and his 2005 Live At The House Of Blues performance is now out in the Blu-ray format.  Tracks include:

 

1)     Get Lifted

2)     Alright

3)     She Don’t Have To Know

4)     Number One (featuring Kanye West)

5)     Let’s Do It Again

6)     Live It Up

7)     Medley: Encore/Never Let Me Down/This Way/You Don’t Know My Name

8)     Selfish

9)     I Can Change (featuring Snoop Dogg)

10)  Used To Love U

11)  Again

12)  Ordinary People

13)  So High

14)  Stay With You

15)  Refuge

 

 

The duets seem odd as compared to the rest of the material, which one can very easily describe as safe.  Safe, and not very memorable, no matter how well he sings them.  If anything, John Legend at Columbia Records almost feels as restricting at times as Aretha Franklin at Columbia Records.  Instead of a change of labels, he needs far more challenging material.  That is if his heart is in it.  Perhaps we should think instead of Etta James singing At Last when she did not do enough Tell Mama.  We’ll just have to keep listening to hear if he changes course for those more soulful waters.

 

The 1080i 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image is pretty good despite some detail limits and spots of noise.  Color and lighting save the presentation from a lower rating.  The sound options include adequate Dolby Digital 5.1, PCM 2.0 Stereo and an especially good PCM 5.1 mix, which tend to be standard on Sony/BMG Blu-ray releases.  They are trying out Dolby TrueHD, but I doubt it would have made a difference here.  Extras include the Music Video for So High and a making of look at it from the DVD version, plus Blu-ray exclusive alternate version of that song, Again and Ordinary People.

 

Fans will love this and if you have never heard Legend and can play Blu-ray, it is worth a look and listen.  Otherwise, try a different title.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo