John Legend giving voice to a romantic style of neo-soul, with hip-hop swagger, at the Nokia Theater.
“Well, I talked about cheating on the last album a few times,” John Legend said at the Nokia Theater on Monday night, “but women have a way of getting back at you.” When female fans responded with screeched demurrals, he added, “You’re screaming, so you must be a cheater, too.”
If Mr. Legend wants to play a bad boy, infidelity is pretty much all he’s got. A dignified Ivy League-educated pianist and singer who specializes in romantic neo-soul songs, he is often photographed sitting at a baby grand in a V-neck sweater and tailored pants. It is hard to think of a more collegiate R & B man; unlike some soul stars, Mr. Legend kept his white T-shirt on throughout the show, despite a few pleas of “Take it off!”
But Mr. Legend can also muster a hip-hop swagger, which helped him secure a male following, too. (The sold-out crowd was evenly split.) “Get Lifted,” his silkily excellent Grammy-winning debut from 2004, fuses ’70s soul with contemporary hip-hop beats and slang. With Kanye West as his executive producer, he drops the name Jay-Z, performs duets with Snoop Dogg and presents himself as a player who may just sneak off while the incense is still burning.
“You can’t say I don’t love you/ Just because I cheat on you,” he sings in “Number One,” although the overall message of the songs on “Get Lifted” is the nice-guy promise of “Stay With You.”
As he introduced the bossa-nova-inflected “Maxine,” from his accomplished new album, “Once Again,” Mr. Legend said that when you try to win a woman back, “you make all kinds of promises.” He did not elaborate, but the song’s protagonist apparently scours South America for the perfect pair of white stilettos for his girl (he finds them in Peru).
Though he still plays a strayer on tracks like the spare, downbeat “Again,” he is far less caddish about it. Instead, he is hard at work repairing damaged affairs. On “Each Day Gets Better,” which features horns and a sample of the Four Tops, the woman is the resistant party. “Now that I know what true love means/ I just hope she stays with me,” Mr. Legend sang, swaying behind his mike stand as his band took over.
Surprisingly, there are far fewer hip-hop influences on “Once Again,” which in contrast to its predecessor has more of a sprightly, classic ’60s soul feel and “sweet as honeydew” lyrics. If a curse were removed, “Slow Dance” could have been an AM radio hit during the Johnson administration, with its da-da-da-da backing vocals and genteel groove.
“Who’s going to dance with me tonight?” Mr. Legend asked, pointing at several screaming contenders. The winner, naturally, was a tall woman in a tight minidress; when Mr. Legend briefly caressed her hip, a few fans looked completely astonished. What happened to the shy crooner who used to hide behind his piano?
Well, he stopped shaving and practiced some lover-man moves. “This song is a little nastier,” he said of the swinging “P.D.A. (We Just Don’t Care).” “It’s about doing it in public, when you might be caught.” Although he suggests making out at restaurants, on fire escapes and at “your mama’s house,” he — and the crowd — kept things chaste. At D’Angelo shows earlier this decade, the stage often looked as if a tornado had swept through the lingerie department of Macy’s. On Monday night, fans held on to their undergarments and Mr. Legend held on to his shirt. It seemed like a fair trade.
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