Evolver

Evolver is the third studio album by American singer John Legend, released by GOOD Music and Sony Music Entertainment on October 28, 2008, in the United States and on October 20 in the United Kingdom. It features guest appearances by Kanye West, Brandy, Estelle and Andre 3000, among others. The album debuted at number 4 on the U.S. Billboard 200 with sales of 132,823 copies. It also entered the UK Albums Chart at number 21, and reached number 26 on the national Japanese albums chart, as well as number 5 on the Japanese foreign chart. The album received positive reviews from music critics. Since the album's release, it has been certified Gold by the RIAA. In May 2009, the song "This Time" was featured prominently in the closing scenes of the third-season finale of the CW/BET comedy-drama television series The Game. Background Speaking in July 2008 to noted UK R&B writer Pete Lewis of Blues & Soul, Legend explained what he wanted to achieve musically with Evolver: "I wanted it to be diverse. So I basically just wanted to make some great records that together covered the whole gamut of the various forms of expression I feel comfortable doing. So we have a couple of club tracks; we have a reggae song; we have a few really strong ballads... and kind of everything in between. Plus we have a political anthem at the end as well. So, while there are some elements that people have heard in previous albums of mine, I also think there are some things people HAVEN'T heard from me before. And I think that's what makes the album interesting. In particular I feel I've made different arrangement and production choices this time. While I don't think my writing style itself has changed significantly, sonically the main difference is that we chose to use more electronic instruments on this record."