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. But, things have seemingly changed with the release of her (assumed) sultry album cover for her forthcoming project Girl on Fire. She rarely wears anything too revealing besides the occasional corset or two. When Keys and the team throw caution to the wind the album begins to sound fresh. Alicia Keys has been one of the more reserved women of the music industry. 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. Recording sessions for the album took place at various recording studios from 2005 until 2007. Numbers like this, "Tell You Somethin'", "Superwoman" and "Lesson Learned" are slick, safe, and uninspiring. Echoing Alicia s front cover, the design posed a seemingly nude and barefaced Keys against a pale red backdrop with the album title rendered in simple font. As I Am is the third studio album by American singer and songwriter Alicia Keys. The accomplished 27-year-old has always made a delicate exercise of placating the hip-hop and R&B communities, but her. No more so than on the monster single "No-One". Alicia Keys’ third studio album is an exercise in tightening the screws. 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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