A long way to legendary

I'll start with the positives because there's only one: John Legend can carry one hell of a tune.\nNow, to the negatives. The first: song-writing. The first song, "Save Room," is repetitive to say the least (the word "save" is sung over 25 times. I mean come on, grab a thesaurus). It's also his inability to mask his themes, even just slightly, behind metaphors that are detrimental to his lyrics. He named a song "P.D.A." for God's sake. Along with his repetition, he seems to love writing the cliché love songs full of obvious rhyme schemes. While good song-writing can sometimes go unnoticed; oftentimes, the bad will glare at you and smack you in the face.\nI'm surprised the music world even has a place for John Legend. He's neither a member of the east/west coast rap club, nor does he use synthetic beats, while still maintaining the genre heading, "R&B." He seems no less out of place on this album. \nThe best track on the album is "Maxine." Again, the lyrics are pretty awful, with lines like, "She looked as sweet as honeydew." Thankfully, the instrumentation offers up an island feeling combined with a jazziness that I enjoy.\nJohn Legend is a performer, not a musician. He belongs behind the grand piano at a jazz bar in New Orleans, perhaps performing Billy Joel and Elton John tunes, or even some Motown stuff. The problem is, the guy just cannot write songs. I also greatly fault his producer, who obviously doesn't subscribe to the belief that less is more. He must feel like more is more, but still not quite enough. \nIt's hard not to fill this review with clichés and poor writing after what I've been hearing. This is not an album that I'll recommend, unless of course, it's to my worst enemy. No offense Mr. Legend -- you can really sing -- but find yourself a writer and a new producer.