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John Legend’s latest CD is disappointingly not an album full of husky crooning and subtly smoldering R&B grooves. Instead, Wake Up! is full of “socially conscious” songs from the ’60s and ’70s that Legend wants to apply to the current American political climate. The title track is a faithful cover of the original by Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes—maybe too faithful, because it adds no new flavor, and I found myself skipping over the original to listen to the 2010 upgrade.

Luckily, the final track on the CD is this live in-studio performance that sounds just as flawless as the album cut, if not better—John Legend always sounds less delicate, less sweet, and more raw (read: better) without the final polish of studio post-production magic.