Music Review : As I am (Alicia Keys)
With each album, Alicia Keys becomes more of an oddball and peeks back a little further in time. Her new record glances toward the ’60s, but she’s not just retro-soul anymore. Keys isn’t an incisive lyricist. She sings generalities, which at worst can make her a platitude-monger, but at best can lift her toward classic pop writing. Here she switches between lovers’ plaints and inspirational self-help, elevating both by the grainy intensity of her voice. She also has subtleties; “Go Ahead,” a
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