Review: Alicia Keys, The Diary of Alicia Keys

Despite all the fanfare that surrounded her debut, the singer remains grounded in the music.

Alicia Keys, The Diary of Alicia KeysOnce you realize there’s nothing new about neo-soul, it’s easier to appreciate the music for what it is and what it honors, rather than what it’s supposed to represent in the current not-so-grand scheme of R&B music. Perhaps that’s why the arrival of Alicia Keys’s 2001 debut, Songs in A Minor, seemed like such a vibrant beam of light, and perhaps that’s why her sophomore effort, The Diary of Alicia Keys, will undoubtedly prompt slightly overblown expectations. But the fact of the matter is, Diary builds on the promise of Songs in A Minor and, in many ways, trumps that album’s achievements.

Though there’s nothing as immediate as “Fallin’,” or anything as empowering as “A Woman’s Worth” (the closest we get to either of those is the hit-worthy “When You Really Love Someone”), the album is a deft mix of modernism and classicism. You actually believe Keys is a struggling waitress on the lead single “You Don’t Know My Name,” a lo-fi slice of vintage soul that makes much more sense next to album tracks like “If I Was Your Woman/Walk On By” than it does as a stand-alone on urban radio.

The album kicks off proper with two chunky, horn-infused club tracks, “Karma” and the Shaft-esque “Heartburn,” but quickly moves into Keys’s signature click-track percussion romanticism. The exception is “Dragon Days,” with its bouncy keyboards, classic rock guitar licks, and sultry, surprisingly disco-fied vocal delivery: “I feel like an addict must feel when he feeds.”

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Despite all the fanfare that surrounded her debut, Keys remains grounded in the music. “If I Ain’t Got You” is the only song told from the perspective of a starlet: “Some people live for the fortune/Some people live just for the fame… I’ve been there before/But that life’s a bore.” Diary is steeped in the kind of authentic, retro soul that recalls Gaye and Wonder. So now we’ll patiently await the yet-to-made, sure-to-be-landmark socially-conscious Keys record that will blow the lid off everything. No pressure.

Score: 
 Label: J  Release Date: December 2, 2003  Buy: Amazon

Sal Cinquemani

Sal Cinquemani is the co-founder and co-editor of Slant Magazine. His writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, Billboard, The Village Voice, and others. He is also an award-winning screenwriter/director and festival programmer.

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