P.D.A. (We Just Don't Care)

The concept is bald and a little funny: public displays of affection as a defiant political act. Over a stuttering, sample-driven groove — will.i.am's production chops a rubbery bassline against handclaps and a chopped soul vocal — Legend narrates fooling around in an elevator, a taxi, a stairwell, daring anyone watching to object. His delivery is sly rather than lascivious; he sings it with a grin audible in the phrasing, sliding into falsetto on the hook and pulling back into a conversational baritone for the details. What keeps it from being smug is a real undertone of exhilaration — the sound of a couple in the phase where being seen together is itself the thrill, before it curdles into habit. Once Again was Legend's attempt to widen past the piano-man box, and this is its most extroverted swing, closer to Motown pastiche than neo-soul confession. It plays best on a summer evening walking somewhere with someone, or in a kitchen with a drink poured, when the appropriate response to the music is to stop caring who's watching.