As I am --- Alicia Keys --- 2007 (J)
An artiste I've heard a lot about, but have only heard snippets of her songs in passing, certainly never listened to one of her albums all the way through. She seems to be (or have been) very popular, though of course that doesn't guarantee she'll be that good, though she does at least write her own songs and plays piano, organ, synth, even harpsichord as well as sings, so she's not just another pop or r&b diva surviving solely on her vocal chops, which is refreshing and encouraging. Mind you, I said something similar about Delta Goodrem, and though I wasn't underwhelmed by the album I reviewed some time back, “Innocent eyes”, neither was I completely impressed, so how will this turn out?
Jumping into the middle of her catalogue, we're sampling her third album, which as it turns out seems to be the only one on which she doesn't take a hand in the writing. That's disappointing: on her debut she wrote or co-wrote every track, and on her second she was heavily involved in the songwriting. Indeed, after this album she again took to penning tunes for her fourth, but to date this woudl appear to be the only Alicia Keys album on which she does not write, or take part in the writing of, a single track. Will that turn out to be a good or bad thing? Well, to be fair, I can't compare this to “Songs in A Minor” or “The Diary of Alicia Keys”, or even “The element of freedom”, the album following this, as I've heard none of them. But it seems to me a bad idea to hand over creative control of your music to others, especially as up to then you'd been writing the material yourself. In fact, the idea of her returning to writing after this album would perhaps make you think that she considered not doing so here a mistake.
Ah, okay: I misread. She co-wrote every track on the album, which is why she's not credited: it's taken as read that she wrote on each, then her collaborators are shown. Good then, that makes sense.
At any rate, the album is graced by the legendary presence of John Mayer, who also duets with her on one of the tracks, so it can't be all bad. It certainly starts well, with a beautifully classical solo piano piece (Keys trained classically, so definitely knows her way around not only a piano keyboard but the great composers' work as well), an interpretation and update of Chopin's “Nocture No. 20 in C Sharp Minor", then the familiar r&b beat kicks in and the piece takes on new life that is, it has to be said, not half bad. Certainly jazzes the piano melody up, then “Go ahead” starts the album proper, with a certain feel of the Beatles in the melody mixed in with a slower Janet Jackson, and it's clear Keys has a strong voice, however it sounds to my untrained diva-less ear like many of the others I have heard, nothing terribly special.
The song itself smoulders, with restrained anger and frustration, and a sense of slow hip-hop about it, kind of like Puff Daddy's “Come with me”, though not as dramatic, while “Superwoman” is pure gospel infused with power soul and a Fugees-style (and very annoying) spoken rap/vocal in the background. One of the slower tracks on the album, it's quite infectious, though apparently barely made it into the top 100 when released as the final single from the album. Bah. By contrast, the lead single “No one” is more uptempo, with a sort of marching/clapping drumbeat, and it made it to number one, in addition gaining her two Grammys. Good song, but I prefer “Superwoman”. Next up is another single, “Like you'll never see me again”, and it's a slower one with a lovely sprinkly, rolling keyboard sound underpinning the melody, a very passionate vocal from Keys, nice slow sort of “popping” drumbeat that puts me very much in mind of Prince at his height; Alicia even sings a little like him! Nice bit of violin on the outro too.
A good choice for a single, I have to admit, but I'm annoyed that the duet with Mayer was not chosen. Guess the dancing kids don't want to know about some old fart from the world of blues rock, but Mayer is a legend and deserved better treatment than that. Not that I think it would have bothered him; he puts in the sterling performance you would expect from the old campaigner on “Lesson learned”, which he co-wrote with Keys, and of course plays the guitar on it. Naturally there's a lot of the blues in the song, another slow one with some very gentle piano carrying it along, and a nice soul sound to it. “Wreckless love” (her spelling, not mine) is another sort of swingish, mid-paced track with some staccato drums and a nice strings arrangement. Some pretty cool brass in there also, which leads me to an observation I feel I have to make.
I know it's not him, but it's odd that there's a trombone player on this album named Harry Kim, as anyone who has watched --- or should I say, suffered through? --- “Star Trek Voyager” will know was the name of the character played by Garret Wang, and who, in the series played a clarinet. Okay it's not exact, but it's still interesting. Well, I think it is. Humph. Anyway, “The thing about love” is, well, the next track, and a really nice one it is too. Much of this album, I'm finding, is low-key (no pun intended!) and laidback, with only a few uptempo numbers, and though it wouldn't necessarily be my sort of music, I certainly don't hate it and I don't even dislike it as much as I had thought I would. There's a strong sense of gospel in Keys' music, and this comes through again quite powerfully in this song, with her everpresent piano keeping the main melody line. Quite a stirring song, strong even though her vocal is a little restrained in the main.
Less interesting is “Teenage love affair”, which really to me has very little going for it, apart from a rather heavy guitar in places. Pretty much by-the-numbers pop/r&b really, and “I need you”, which follows it, doesn't really raise the bar much either. I wonder if this album is slipping into the “let's just get it finished and get down the pub/club” idea, as it did start well but now the last few tracks have been quite generic, to be kind. Okay, there's a really nice piano run at the end as the song fades out, but it's the only thing I'm likely to remember about the track. Much more interesting is the clarinet and organ opening to “Where do we go from here”, quite Waitsish, then the swagger is back and Keys' voice is again in the ascendancy with some more soul/gospel with a healthy dose of funk thrown in for good measure.
Almost evoking the heyday of the Carpenters, “Prelude to a kiss” is a lovely little piano-led ballad, with a totally understated vocal, certain sense of David Gates in there too, but unfortunately it seems only to be getting going when it's over, the whole thing barely clocking in at just over the two minute mark. Pity; I would have liked to have heard more of that. Still, “Tell you something (Nana's reprise)” is a nice follow-on, with slow heavy percussion and a nice acoustic guitar joined by violin and sung in the typical r&b style though somehow not as annoying as many of the stars of that genre can make their songs appear.
The album manages to finish strongly, on “Sure looks good to me”, another simple piano line carrying the melody, a taut, impassioned almost desperate vocal from Keys which gets more powerful and intense as the song goes on, the tempo increasing to match the change in her vocal, as the drums and guitars cut in, then it all fades out on the original piano line and a nice vocal chorus.
There's no way this album would suddenly make me a fan of Alicia Keys, but at the same time I wouldn't dismiss her work out of hand, having heard this. I've certainly heard worse. But Grammy-worthy? I don't really see it, although again I have to qualify that by saying this is the first and to date only Keys album I have listened to, so I expect I'm not really in a position to judge. But for an album I just decided to dip into and see what the artiste was like, it wasn't half bad, and given a few more listens --- should I decide to do that --- I could quite possibly grow to like this.
TRACKLISTING
1. As I am (intro)
2. Go ahead
3. Superwoman
4. No one
5. Like you'll never see me again
6. Lesson learned
7. Wreckless love
8. The thing about love
9. Teenage love affair
10. I need you
11. Where do we go from here
12. Prelude to a kiss
13. Tell you something (Nana's reprise)
14. Sure looks good to me