The Best New Artist Is Already a Legend

Though he's not wanting for confidence, Legend appears humbled by the overwhelmingly positive response to his music.

"It's kind of crazy to me that so many people enjoy it," he says softly between sips of herbal tea. "I can't really explain it." He adds: "It's cool when people say they like it, but I'm already thinking about the next album and how much better I can make it."

It's not that "Get Lifted" is flawed, he says. (He doesn't particularly agree with the most common knock against the album, which is that he didn't take enough risks. "Some people wanted me to be more alternative. . . . But it is what it is.") It's just, you know, artistic evolution, etc.

"I'm ahead of where I was in my songwriting, production, even my singing," Legend says. "I've learned more about my voice and what I want to do with it. I also want to make the arrangements more dynamic and fluid." He's been studying the arrangements on "Illinois," the gorgeously complex chamber-folk album by the indie-rock idol Sufjan Stevens. Listening to "Illinois," Legend says, has given him plenty of ideas for his next album.

"I'm not going to put it out until I'm sure it's better than the last one," he says. "Everybody's got their timetables for when they want it to come out. I want it to come out this year, but it's going to come out when it comes out. It has to be ready. I have to love it."

"Get Lifted" is essentially a song cycle about relationships, but Legend might explore more socially relevant themes on the follow-up, a la Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder. There's much more to life than just matters of the heart, and on his eponymous Web site, Legend has, over the past year, posted journal entries about poverty, race, politics, oil and war. "The social stuff is heavy on my mind right now, so I'm sure it will creep into my songwriting," Legend says. "But I'll write whatever comes." He says his only criterion for the album is "to make something I love, where I'm proud of every song and they all fit together."

Because Legend is just beginning to write material for the new album, he'll be invisible for most of post-Grammys 2006. But he'll perform a few dates, and who knows -- he might be persuaded to perform at this year's holiday party for his former employer, the Boston Consulting Group. Though it won't necessarily get an alumni discount from its former associate.

"I'm expensive now," Legend says. "They'd have to pay me more for one show than I made every year there." He laughs, then says: "They're particularly proud of me. They use me in their recruiting brochures."

The implication? Work here and you, too, can grab eight Grammy nominations early in your career! Even if you don't obviously look the part.