Keys has never been a brilliant lyricist, but she's always been able to write simple yet affective and honest words that don't seem trite, something that is forgotten here, and makes the track one of the weakest on the album. "When I'm breaking down/And I can't be found/.'Cause no one knows/Me underneath these clothes/But I can fly/We can fly," she sings in the bridge, flatly.
Instead, here, as evidenced in "No One" - which sounds all too ready to take on a "reggae dance mix" - the guitar-driven "I Need You," "Wreckless Love," or "Where Do We Go from Here," which pays tribute to both Stax and Motown ("All I can do/Is follow the tracks of my tears," she sings, after a sample of Wendy Rene's "After Laughter " crackles through the first few bars), this is music that owes as much to pop as it does R&B, highlighted no less by the fact that the queen of radio rock herself, Linda Perry, co-writes three of the songs with Keys, including the straight-from-the-Stripped-sessions "The Thing About Love" and "Superwoman." It is on the latter, in fact, that Keys, unsurprisingly, turns furthest away from the style that brought her initial success (more so even than on the John Mayer collabo, "Lesson Learned," which is actually not bad) toward the generic-pop world, sliding in between corny and sincere, sometimes even in the same breath. On her third full-length, As I Am, Keys takes a step closer toward the soul revival popularized by John Legend, with full-band arrangements and bright horn hooks, only occasionally falling back into the piano/melisma combination that drove the singles off her first two albums. In place of former hip-hop collaborators she has brought in blues maestro John Mayer, who complements her neatly on the wry, piano-heavy 'Lesson Learned'.By now established as a major and talented force in the mainstream music world, Alicia Keys has perhaps earned the right to explore a little, to venture into new genres while still keeping a foot firmly planted in the R&B/neo-soul she grew out of. Much of this album feels like a deliberate homage to the best of mainstream Seventies and Eighties soul, with a pop-savvy modern edge contributed by co-producer Linda Perry. The danger for many artists who spread themselves across such a range of pursuits is that you end up forgetting what it is they are actually good at, so it's fortunate that As I Am brings the focus back to Keys's exceptional voice, which dominates these new songs with all the force of her acknowledged influences - Aretha, Nina, Janis, Billie.Ībandoning the urban influences on Diary, which featured collaborations with rappers Nas and Rakim, As I Am returns to a purer, more traditional soul sound, ranging from the sweet, caramel-smooth 'Tell You Something' or 'Like You'll Never See Me Again' to the powerful, raw-voiced anthems 'Go Ahead', 'Sure Looks Good to Me' and 'Superwoman', in which she channels every great diva who has ever asserted the power of woman.
W here does Alicia Keys find the time? Between the release of her last album, 2005's Unplugged, and this, As I Am, her first studio album since the seven-times-platinum, four Grammy-winning The Diary of Alicia Keys in 2003, she has produced a New York Times bestselling book of poetry, appeared in two Hollywood films, established her own production company, developed and co-written a teen drama series, travelled to Africa as ambassador for Aids charity Keep a Child Alive and, presumably finding herself with a spare weekend, run her first marathon.
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