Muse John Legend

• 1 Muse 02:43
• 2 Pray For Ya 03:17
• 3 Her Introduction 00:19
• 4 Her 02:44
• 5 Daylight 03:17
• 6 Get Back 03:35
• 7 Are You OK? 02:38
• 8 Under The Bridge Introduction 00:29
• 9 Under The Bridge 03:00
• 10 Next Time 03:27
• 11 Bodies On The Floor - Taps Intro 00:18
• 12 Bodies On The Floor 03:48
• 13 Doing Me 03:15
• 14 Fireflies 03:02
• 15 Everything 03:23
• 16 Sail Off 03:31
• Total Runtime 42:46

Info for Muse

Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony-winning (EGOT) John Legend is back with his 11th studio album.

Muse is a different kind of John Legend record. More than twenty years into a body of work defined by the ballads audiences have made their own, Legend set out to make an album no one expected of him, himself included. “I think my repertoire has always been very diverse, but the piano-driven ballads have gotten the most traction throughout my career,” he said. “I wanted to shake up the formula and do something fresh and new.”

“I think people forget I’m the one who wrote “Tonight (Best You Ever Had),” John says in a preview from his takeover. “I was talking my sh*t back then so people forget that sometimes, and they get caught in the, “All of Me,” and the “Glory” of it all. And they forget I know how to talk my sh*t too.”

For the project, John teamed up with Pharrell Williams, who helped him craft an album that pushed him out of his comfort zone.

The project took shape after Legend appeared on Clipse’s comeback album Let God Sort ‘Em Out, produced by Pharrell. Legend’s vocal on the track “The Birds Don’t Sing” inspired the producer to build an album around that voice. “When Pharrell called me, I thought, let’s do this,” Legend recalled. “A lot of people would have imagined we’d done something like this already, but we hadn’t. It felt past due.”

The two convened in Paris in January 2025, writing and recording out of Pharrell’s studio at Louis Vuitton headquarters, where he serves as Men’s Creative Director. The album draws on Nina Simone, Nat King Cole, and Marvin Gaye. “Pharrell’s idea from the beginning was that we would create something with all of these classic, cinematic elements, this Black James Bond aesthetic,” Legend said, “but with a modern backbeat at its foundation. You can hear traces of me and traces of him, but it sounds like something new for the both of us. The combination of me and Pharrell, on paper, I think, is a good idea. And the execution is even better.” The collaboration was first previewed on the runway through the rollicking, gospel-tinged “Pray For Ya,” which soundtracked Louis Vuitton’s Fall-Winter 2026 Men’s show and was featured in Pharrell’s Moet Ice Impérial campaign in June.

The album’s range surfaces across its songs, beginning with the title track, which opens the record and traces a tumultuous relationship between a man and his muse, from lust through commitment and betrayal, against the romantic backdrop of Paris and high art. “There was no particular, explicit person,” Legend shared. “We conjured a character we could write about, freely.” The album’s title also nods to the Muses of Greek mythology, the nine sister goddesses who governed music, science, literature and the arts. “Our ancestors are our muses,” Legend added. “My music has always been me channeling the ancestors, taking what they gave us and making something new.”

Elsewhere, “Her” draws on the doo-wop and gospel Legend grew up on for a tender, nostalgic portrait of infatuation; and “Get Back,” featuring Pharrell, renders the album’s Black James Bond flair in full, with smoky, cinematic soul built on big horns and strings. “Are You OK?” turns a relationship argument into tough love, laced with sarcasm and emotional intelligence, while “Bodies on the Floor,” featuring Clipse, lets the language of gang warfare bleed into a song about a toxic, magnetic bond.

“I think Pharrell pushed me creatively, he challenged me to sing differently on certain songs,” John says. “He, as a songwriter, gave me ideas that maybe I would have come up with myself. I think where we landed, was the best of both worlds.”

John Legend, vocals
Pharrell Williams, additional vocals, production
Clipse, rap (on „Bodies On The Floor“)

John Legend
is a nine-time Grammy Award winning recording artist, critically-acclaimed concert performer, philanthropist/social activist, and was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people. Legend’s debut album, Get Lifted (2004) sold more than three million copies worldwide and earned an astounding eight Grammy nominations with three wins for Best New Artist, Best Male R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B album. Legend’s follow-up album, Once Again (2006) earned RIAA platinum certification and a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance. High off the success of his third consecutive Top 10 album, Evolver (2008), Legend embarked on an extensive world tour with an 11 piece band - his largest traveling show to date. Inspired by the monumental 2008 Presidential election, Legend teamed up with The Roots to release the socially conscious album, Wake Up! (2010.) The album was nominated for five Grammy Awards and won Best R&B Album, Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance and Best R&B song (for “Shine”- an original composition also featured in Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim’s documentary film Waiting for Superman) along with two NAACP Image Awards for Outstanding Album and Outstanding Duo, Group or Collaboration. In 2007, Legend launched the Show Me Campaign, a nonprofit organization fighting poverty around the world. John also sits on the Boards of The Education Equality Project, Teach for America, and the Harlem Village Academies. Legend has been honored several times for his activism, including the 2010 BET Humanitarian of the Year award, the 2009 CARE Humanitarian Award for Global Change, and the 2009 Africare’s Bishop John T. Walker Distinguished Humanitarian Service Award. In early 2012, Legend released one of the hottest songs of his career, the RIAA gold-certified hit “Tonight (Best You’ve Ever Had),” which sat atop the Urban AC radio chart for six consecutive weeks. Legend recently released his fifth studio album Love in the Future, with executive producers Kanye West and Dave Tozer, and will embark on a North American tour this autumn.

This album contains no booklet.