Just a year after the release of his critically acclaimed sophomore LP, Once Again, John Legend returns with a follow-up disc to start the year off, Live From Philadelphia. This is his second Target stores exclusive that he has released, following a 2006 Christmas EP, “Sounds of The Season” (who knew?!). The new live offering shows just how far John has come in his career, in comparison to his previously released Live At The House Of Blues DVD release.

Live At The House Of Blues featured the singer/songwriter on stage, amongst an intimate, yet sold out crowd. Legend was still a somewhat new face at that time, and much of the performance focused on his first LP, Get Lifted. Midway through the show, John played a medley of different songs he had collaborated on with other artists, such as Lauryn Hill, Dilated Peoples, Slum Village, Jay-Z, Alicia Keys, and others, suggesting he’s been around a little longer than you might have thought. As an added bonus, collaborators Kanye West and Snoop Dogg did impromptu performances with him for their respective songs on the album. But that was then.

This time around however, the show is all John’s. There’s no need for him to validate himself any longer with guest appearances from bigger artists or medleys of more popular songs. Legend has grown into his celebrity in his own right, and now plays to a sold out crowd in a massive theatre in Philadelphia. You can hear the sheer mass of the crowd when they pick up the vocals to “Ordinary People”, giving you an idea of just how large his fanbase is.

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Much of the performance, however, focuses on the Once Again LP, as the Get Lifted album was pretty much covered on the first live DVD. Staple songs from the first LP are included, like the aforementioned “Ordinary People”, but some have taken on new forms for the new show. “Number One”, for instance, interpolates Boogie Down Production’s “Still Number One”, and sounds incredible, as the band behind John plays the original sample live.  “Used To Love U” starts off just as at usually would, but breaks into a dancehall riddim for the second half of the song. Meanwhile, “I Can Change” is performed as-is, but morphs into a cover of The Beatles “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, before you even realize it’s happening.

These aren’t the only “mash-ups,” per say, in the performance. One of the best live renditions comes to one of his best songs, “P.D.A. (Public Display Of Affection”). He doubles up on this one, first using the backdrop from b-boy classic “Rock Creek Park” by The Blackbyrds, thanks to it’s “doin’ it in the park” vocals, which fit in with the them of Legend’s song. He takes a step further, by then interpolating Roberta Flack’s “Feel Like Makin’ Love”, which also carries on the theme of dirty sex in public places. Jokes aside, this is the pinnacle of the performance.

Roberta Flack actually gets some extra love (and publishing royalties), as her classic duet with Donnie Hathaway, “Where Is The Love”, is performed by Legend and rising star Corrine Bailey Rae. As an added bonus, we also get a cover of Sly & The Family Stone’s “Dance To The Music”, where John introduces the audience to the members of his band, including his brother, Vaughn Anthony.

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Live From Philadelphia is available in two versions. A standard single disc CD version, and then a slightly more expensive deluxe version that includes a bonus DVD. Unfortunately, the DVD is a bit of a bait-&-switch, only offering a “teaser” from the live performance, which is slated for later release on DVD (and hopefully Blu-Ray Disc). This cheap marketing gimmick of a deluxe edition CD+DVD spoils the fun of the eventual full-length video release, by showing bits and pieces of the show’s greatest moments, all for a few dollars more. It does however include two previously unreleased videos – “Another Again” and “Show Me”, but considering that John released videos for each “P.D.A.”, “Save Room” and two videos for “Heaven”, a full-length Once Again video DVD – or release of the videos on the Live From Philadelphia full-length DVD release – is inevitable. So the verdict is, get the standard edition and buy the full-length DVD or Blu Ray disc later.

Nevertheless, whichever package you buy, this is a must have for fans of the G.O.O.D. Music artist. Sure, you can only get it at Target, but isn’t that so much cooler than Wal-Mart, who censors all the “shits” and “fucks” out of every CD they sell? All in all, John Legend is an amazing live performer, who sounds exactly like he does on his records, and that is proven once again (no pun intended) on this latest release. – Pizzo