Song Review: 'Bigger Love' is the Song We Need Right now

After experiencing Drake’s nihilistic capitalism on Toosie Slide and the soullessness Doja Cat’s Say So, John Legend’s Bigger Love is the perfect palette cleanser. Bigger Love is a breath of fresh pop air after gagging on the most recent entries in my music review career. Bigger Love sounds modern in ways so many other pop stars have rejected lately. Legend fuses afro-beats, reggae and R & B in a tasty pop gumbo.

Bigger Love appears to have been inspired by his wife, God’s gift to modern social media, Chrissy Teigen. Bigger Love is about taking shelter in love, shutting out the rest of the world and nestling in the comfort of home and family. It’s wholesome and sweet. Bigger Love is more than platitudes however, as John Legend infuses the lyrics with a world weariness that could not be more in touch with our cultural moment.

When John Legend sings “I don’t wanna think about nothing, the world feels like it’s crumbling” it strikes just the right tone. It’s how we all feel after a day spent consuming the horrors of the world via social media. Retreating to our family and friends, Netflix and Hulu, our pets and our couch feels palliative. The Bigger Love of the song is not about leaving the rest of the world behind but rather about taking a break from the world.

I feel this message so deeply. While Drake and Doja Cat appear to be in denial about our cultural moment, trying to force either capitalism or the fakeness of online, Insta-filtered happiness, John Legend comes off like an adult has finally showed up with a hug and reassurance that it is okay to be tired and to take a break. There is no need to pretend toward happiness, real happiness is there for you when you are safe at home in the arms of your loved ones.

I’m making Bigger Love sound as if it is sad and it most certainly is not. Weary? Yes, but not sad. The drum beats, bass and soaring background vocals are compelling on a visceral level. I want to come home at the end of every day I spend as an ‘essential worker’ and play Bigger Love and dance as a way of shaking off the day and giving myself a break from the horrors of our time. That’s the power of a really great song.

I’ve always admired John Legend but Bigger Love is the first time I have truly loved one of his songs. It’s like a musical balm. I feel renewed listening to Bigger Love. I’m refreshed and restored by the professional beats, Legend’s silky vocals and lyrics that are real and of the moment without being oppressive. It’s like listening to a friend with whom you can share the pain with while relieving yourself of that pain at once. No pretense of strength, no judgement, no pretending everything is normal but also no giving in to despair.

I am laying a lot of my personal feelings on Bigger Love but my feeling is, if a song reaches you in a specific way, go with it. Adopt the song, make it your own and make whatever assumption you need to make for it to bring you comfort. Bigger Love does that for me. I feel comforted by Bigger Love. The song is warm and inviting with a top notch craftsmanship that satisfies the need for art and something to dance to.

At a time when there is so much oppressive sadness, John Legend offers a song that is timely but doesn’t linger on pain or sorrow. I compared the song to a hug earlier and in the era of the Coronavirus and social distancing, that feeling is powerful. I am soothed by this song. The beat is pitch perfect in compelling the listener to want to dance while the lyrics recognize our shared hardship and offers comfort that everyone can relate to, recognizing the people you love and who love you.

There is hope in the song with lyrics about how nothing can stop this, our Bigger Love means we will never give up. But, that comes with the recognition that things are hard right now. It’s that balancing act of acknowledging that we are weary and tired and that’s okay with a message of hope that isn’t a platitude about how we are all in it together or in these hard times. Believe in love, live in love, rest, renew.

Again, much of this is probably just me, but Bigger Love made me think like this and thus I am crediting the song with these feelings.