Music Review: Alicia Keys, “Songs in A Minor: 10th Anniversary Collector’s Edition”

Posted by staticblog

on July 12, 2011M at 12:08 pm

Rating: 93

A decade in the music business isn’t what it used to be — the first 10 years of the 21st century delivered less measurable stylistic change on the pop charts than any decade since the 1940s. So the arrival of a 10th anniversary collector’s edition of Alicia Keys’ disarmingly confident 2001 debut, “Songs in A Minor,” feels oddly premature, because not only has Keys’ album aged well, it is more accurate to say it has not aged at all.

Keys was 19 years old when she recorded “A Minor,” which makes the sure-footed execution of the album still so impressive. She was approaching soul music with the ears of a classicist, giving deep tracks such as “Rock Wit U” a resonant Curtis Mayfield vibe and announcing her chops on the opening “Piano & I” by playing Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” under her spoken-word introduction.

Singles such as “Fallin’” and “A Woman’s Worth” made an impression because Keys was not responding to any production or songwriting styles of her time, and while the influence of hip-hop is clearly present in “Girlfriend,” it is woven into the song’s largely organic soul foundation.

This collector’s edition includes a disc of rarities and a DVD chronicling the production of “Songs in A Minor,” an album that went on to sell 12 million copies globally and instantly cemented Keys as a force in pop and soul.

Clive Davis’ mentorship and his tireless promotion of the album meant that the stakes were set unusually high for the debut, but Keys proved to have staying power on her subsequent three studio albums. If Davis intended her as the more artistically credible inheritor of a spotlight previously occupied by stars such as Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey, the decade that has passed since “Songs in A Minor” proves that Davis saw in Keys a singer who could transcend her youth and sustain a lifelong career.

— Lang

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