Home
Orientation
PENthouse
Essays
Poetry
The Novel
Music Reviews
Alicia Keys, Songs...
circa Sept. 2001
... The time ticks quicker than before. Critics new those who croon with a feminine tongue
would give the industry a little bit more. Real soul, whether hip-hip or the neo kind, should take
more space than that one could hold in one hand.
Mary J. Blige appeared to be one of few who needed not worry about the ground
collapsing under her feet. She was sexy and sensational with a penetrating personality. She sang songs. The melody, the rhythm and the words found us even if we wanted to hide. Texas-bred Erykah Badu gave us spirit with her own outstanding originality.
We're surrounded today. They are like zombies moving to the same proverbial beat
thrilling us with tenacious terms of love and tension, bitter ballads followed with their best face. It is a movement mastered by soul sistahs and they are writing, producing and arranging their own songs now which we used for late lullabies last night. We have Jill Scott, Sunshine Anderson, Syleena Johnson, India.Arie and now a part of the pack, is Alicia Keys.
With previous appearances on "Oprah" and "The Tonight Show" and a nomination for
"Best New Artist In A Video" for the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards, in which she performed on September 6, her star is shining bright and may gleam to epic proportions after the release of the next single and tour with "soul-sun" Maxwell. The tour began mid-August with seven dates in New York, including the famed Apollo Theater and Madison Square Garden, the two will played Washington, DC and Atlanta expecting to reach Houston on the second leg of the tour
in October.
Initially signed to SoSo Def by Jermaine Dupri in 1998, Keys moved on Clive Davis' J-Records. Davis, founder of his previous employer, Arista Records, has long been a powerful name in the music industry though not all of his press has been positive. Despite, he jump-started the careers of major artists like Barry Manilow, Whitney Houston, P. Diddy and was a key figure behind the emergence of Santana's Grammy-studded year in 1999.
The bi-racial Keys, born and raised in Manhattan, will surely carry the baton for her predecessors and industry peers with her extraordinary talent and bonafied beauty, unbelievable for a twenty-year-old classical pianist.
Released months ago, Keys debut album Songs in A Minor is close to reaching gold
status after entering the Billboard charts at number one. After falling from number one the next week due to the debut of P. Diddy's Badboy compilation The Saga Continues..., the album leaped back into the top spot selling more than 200,000 copies during that week and has kept
its place every since.
The album is currently riding the wave of the first single, "Fallin'," a piano-laced, melancholic comprehension with an accompanying video showing all of her talents -- writing, singing, producing -- and her smile, style and charisma. It is a confessional created through a hindsighted impression of passion and pain still standing strong on the radio waves right now. Much like her true introduction to the world, the rest of the 16-track album stands before an
audience as a pictorial backdrop of emotional extent developed through life lessons and heartfelt histories. The overall project moves past other works filled with phat singles and filler. "Songs ..." tops the charts as one truly well arranged and produced album with the songbird working before the mic and piano sticking her magical hands in on the production, as well.
She does enlist some help from newcomer Kerry �Krucial� Brothers, label-mate Jimmy Cozier (�Mr. Man�), Jermaine Dupri (�Girlfriend�), Brian McKnight (�Goodbye�) and hit-maker Kandi Burruss (�Jane Doe�). Keys, who wrote many of the songs years ago, remade a couple of hits. She adds her own smooth licks and piano tricks to Prince�s �How Come You Don�t Call Me� and Brian McKnight�s early classic, �Never Felt This Way.�
Superstars become so for the personality the fans yearn to explore, learn from and fall for. Though filled with piano productions, bass guitars, violins, organs and even an orchestra provided by souldaddy Isaac Hayes (�Rock Wit U�), Keys� B.I.G, Jay-Z and Wu-tang influences stand out. You cannot help but to head-nod to nearly every song. You will fall for her.
Mature songs like �A Woman�s Worth� and �Troubles,� in which she recites �feels like the world is closing on me/feels like my dreams will never come to me,� acknowledges the teacher within her young soul. Her powerful voice explodes at times with riffs and runs like Roberta Flack, escalations like Mariah Carey and deep, dark sensationalism reminiscent of Mary J. Blige. The song, �The Life� is an example as she answers questions as to who she grew up listening to with her mother seemingly filling in where Curtis Mayfield left off �trying to get
over.�
Alicia Keys has given us all something to listen to and love. It is very easy on the ears. She will be a mainstay in the industry for years to come.
�So what if it took me, like, two years and isht,� she explains on the intro, �Piano and I.� No sweat, Alicia, we are happy you are here.