It’s been a year since John Legend wrote most of his forthcoming fifth album, Darkness and Light. But the Grammy-winning singer/songwriter (and impassioned Hillary Clinton supporter) says its themes have struck a new chord with him in the weeks following the presidential election.

“It feels more relevant than it would have otherwise, because the album talks about an uncertain world that can be dark and troublesome at times, and trying to find light through that,” says Legend, 37. “I guess the world got a little darker, in my mind, after the election.”

Darkness (out Friday) is also his most personal record, he adds — and that’s coming from the man who spun a tender ballad for his wife, model Chrissy Teigen, into a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart (All of Me, off 2013 album Love in the Future).

Working with Alabama Shakes producer Blake Mills — and inspired by Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye — “I wanted it to be an honest reflection of who I am as a person, and what I’m thinking about when it comes to my personal life and what’s going on in the world,” Legend says. “I think this album does the best job of any of my albums of really capturing my point of view on a range of subjects.”

For instance, the Miguel collaboration Overload muses on Legend and Teigen’s relationship in the spotlight and how they deal with online critics. (The lyric “let that blue bird sing” shrugs off Twitter trolls.) The deceptively sexy Penthouse Floor, featuring Chance the Rapper, is the album’s most socially conscious track, as the duo takes stock of class and fame over an elastic funk groove.

“The song is talking about that idea of ascension and going to rarefied air, but also not forgetting what the conditions are in the community that you’ve come from,” Legend says. “Chance’s verse puts an interesting twist on it, because it (asks), ‘Are you even sure you want to be here?’ You still feel like an outsider; you’re not treated the same way as the people who are born into (wealth).”

Then there’s Right By You, a heart-tugging rumination on his 7-month-old daughter, Luna, who also appears in the music video for single Love Me Now. Written while Teigen was pregnant, the song is “mostly questions: wondering what our daughter’s going to be like, how we’ll be as parents, what kind of world she’ll grow up in and how she’ll influence that world,” Legend says. “It’s not (written) out of anxiety; it’s more curiosity and hope.”

The song asks whether Luna will have Teigen’s “fire” or Legend’s physical features. The answer, they discovered, is that “she looks like both of us. It’s unclear what her personality’s going to be like, but she’s a lot of fun right now. Her energy’s really great, and she smiles and giggles a lot.”

Outside of music, Legend is a producer on WGN America’s slavery drama Underground and has a small role in Damien Chazelle’s musical Oscar contender La La Land (out Dec. 9). He says that fatherhood has made him more mindful of his schedule and what projects he takes on, because “you just want to be there as much as you can.”

More personally, being a parent is “a beautiful thing,” Legend says. “Obviously, we’re not the only people to have felt this. But there’s something special about that feeling, knowing that you two as a couple have created something that will always be a reflection of your love and union.”