It’s My Time, Said it’s Time for Me to Shine

Last year Nas declared Hip-Hop Is Dead. The only problem was that the album was in fact proof that hip-hop wasn’t dead. Yeah ring tone rappers have watered down the art form, but albums from Common and Kanye West this year has kept the genre afloat. On the other hand, R&B has been on its deathbed for a long time and great R&B albums have been few and far in-between this decade. Even the great ones getting little airplay instead radio spent more time to R&B artists who excel more at dancing than singing with tracks that sound more like hip-hop beats than something coming out of Motown or Stax.

One of the few R&B artists that manage to have soul and still have commercial appeal is Alicia Keys. This may be in part that she still infuses the use of hip-hop beats like her contemporaries, but the bases of her music is still primarily the piano which leads to a mix of hip hop and classical with Keys’ heartfelt and introspective lyrics overtop. Her first two albums, which combined to sell ten million records, were just appetizers to what she is truly capable of.

Now at twenty-seven, her third studio album As I Am has a maturity that her first two were lacking. This is most evident with That’s the Thing About Love. The song is definitely not something that a twenty year old could write, and the older Keys lets loose at the crescendo at the end of the song, knowing, even in this world of Pro Tools, it isn’t about hitting every note right if the emotion behind it is there. The song itself is just one of those timeless love songs that should be a requirement at every wedding for the next century.

On the other side of the spectrum is the more subtle Like You’ll Never See Me Again where Keys coos over bells that go up and down the scale throughout the whole song and some well placed finger snaps. The album is bookmarked with two of the strongest track. Go Ahead is a tuba heavy (no seriously) kiss off with Keys in full woman scorned mode. The album closes with Sure Looks Good to Me with its grandeur than transcends R&B and is much closer to a sweeping power balled of the seventies than any contemporary artist of today.

Alicia Keys definitely has a classic album that stands the tests of time in her, but unfortunately As I Am isn’t that album. There is just too much filler on it. The biggest disappointment is the John Mayer (she appeared on his Gravity) assisted Lesson Learned a boring melodrama that isn’t up to par with either artist. Certainly the females out there can appreciate the I Am Woman Here Me Roar esthetic of Superwoman, but as a grown man I just found the song trite and skipable.

Then there is I Need You with lyrics that seem left over from either Karma from the last album or a sophomore poetry assignment. But much like Karma, the song is saved by a killer backing track from Mark Baston (Dr. Dre, Dave Matthews Band), who also produced Go Ahead. Hopefully by the next album, all the filler will be gone and Keys makes the album she was born to make.

Song to Download - Sure Looks Good to Me

As I Am gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.