05

Alicia Keys

Songs In A Minor

Release date: June 26, 2001

Note: Now I'm just trying to get these done. Not a great review, but you're probably one of the nearly four million who already bought this so you don't need a review. Besides, you aren't actually reading these, are you?

20 year old phenom Alicia Keys was undoubtedly music's biggest surprise of 2001. By combining her classically trained piano playing skills with a mix of hip hop and R&B, Keys set the industry ablaze with her chart-topping album with the clever double meaning title, Songs In A Minor

Keys accomplishment is all the more amazing due to the fact that like Jill Scott and Maxwell, her brand of R&B fused with piano had no place on radio across the country. Like a wildfire, word of Keys' album spread through the country and by the end of 2001, she had sold close to four million copies in exactly six months, and the album had spent all but a few of its 25 weeks in the top 20, nearly 20 of those weeks in the top 10.

On "Fallin", Keys successfully plays the role of unrequited lover waning between, "I love him, I love him not."

"Sometimes I feel good
At times I feel used
Loving you darling
Makes me so confused

I keep on fallin' in and out of love with you
I never loved someone the way that I love you"

"A Woman's Worth" is the obligatory 'girl power' song that either strikes the listener as, "I'm not afraid to show you I'm a strong woman,' or "I'm a strong woman and I have high expectations for myself as well as you. I can't figure out which one, but apparently I'm the only one," as Keys sings, "no need to read between the lines, I spell it out for you."

Alicia gives us a bonus track that sounds very little like the preceding fifteen tracks. The song has a 60's sound and is done in a very similar style as The Supremes, Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin.

Perhaps the only thing more striking than Keys' success is her similarities to pop diva Mariah Carey. Her Prince cover "How Come You Don't Call Me", her interlude "Never Felt This Way", "Butterflyz", "Goodbye" and her bonus track vocally and musically all sound like Mariah Carey early in her career.

Keys, also 20 at the beginning of her career is finding the same pressures to follow up Songs In A Minor as Mariah had with following up her debut. With any luck, she will be able to develop into a mature artist and a leader in the industry and will live up to her billing as 'the next Mariah Carey.'

What real reviewers said: Many young female singers court the tweenie market by exaggerating their girlish charms, but twenty-year-old Alicia Keys sings for adults.

Showing a maturity beyond her years, this New York newcomer's largely self-produced debut suggests down-home R&B contemporaries like Jill Scott as well as yesteryear's soul sophisticates. She's not at the level of her heroes yet: Keys penned much of Songs in A Minor in high school, and the singing is more mature than the self-consciously retro arrangements and sometimes thin sonics.

Still, there's no denying the serious early Aretha vibe permeating the current hit "Fallin'" or the authority with which Keys rips into Prince's beloved B-side ballad, "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore." Jermaine Dupri's typically slinky "Girlfriend" steers her into contemporary hip-hop mode, while elsewhere, complex jazz harmonies and organic instrumentation complement her commanding presence. Keys is a discovery of pop impresario Clive Davis, and his orchestrating hand sometimes weighs heavily over this album; but Keys is never upstaged, and we're only beginning to see the depth of her talent.

Barry Walters, Rolling Stone

2001 honors:

MTV Video Music Award, Best New Artist
My VH1 Award, Welcome To The Big Time (Best new artist) Also included three other nominations
Nominated for six NAACP Awards
Nominated for eight Billboard Awards, winner of three (best new R&B/Hip Hop, new artist of year, female of the year)
Debuted on Billboard chart at number one, held position for three weeks
Second best album of the year, Songs In A Minor (Rolling Stone)
Artist of the year (Maxim Blender)
Top ten album of 2001, Songs In A Minor (Maxim Blender)
Top 20 single of 2001, "Fallin'" (Spin)

Singles: "Fallin'", "Fallin'" (remix), "A Woman's Worth"

Also check out: "Jane Doe", "Troubles", "Goodbye", "Mr. Man"

Sounds like: Early Mariah Carey.

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