"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. This just feels like a step back.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. His music sounds timeless now because it was groundbreaking when it was made. She is talked about as a female Stevie Wonder, but he is held in such high regard because he was a pioneer. You get a sense of her huge talent but it feels like in trying to make a modern classic that is in keeping with Keys' huge stature, they have played it too safe. It is a frustrating, mixed bag of an album. As if reading your mind she states "it's about time for me to shine" and obligingly does in a big and bold way. "The Thing About Love" a beautiful centre piece. "Wreckless Love" is Keys at her most funky and sexy her voice soaring above a crescendo of jazzy drums and horns.
The Hammond and horns underpin a huge vocal performance that has more emotion squeezed into it than all the ballads together. The modern soul sound that they seem to be searching for suddenly comes right on the seriously classy "Where Do We Go From Here". "I Need You"'s off beat rhythms make you prick up your ears and listen.
When Keys and the team throw caution to the wind the album begins to sound fresh. Lyrically soft rocker "Sure Looks Good To Me" presents the case against and is simply a stream of howling clichés. Similarly, "You'll See Me Again" could be from a book of Prince's bad ballads. Numbers like this, "Tell You Somethin'", "Superwoman" and "Lesson Learned" are slick, safe, and uninspiring. No more so than on the monster single "No-One".
Sassy opener "Go Ahead" feels like a statement of intent but the attitude is sadly lacking elsewhere on the album which often feels more Whitney than Stevie. Her celebrated voice is pushed to the fore, often relegating the prodigious piano playing to the background, save on "Prelude To A Kiss" where they go hand in hand. With her third studio album, As I Am, Alicia Keys has dropped the urban flavours in the previous outing in favour of a more mature soul sound.
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