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Rating: Good |
Alicia Keys' debut album, Songs in A Minor, made a huge impact when it arrived in the summer of 2001, catapulting the young singer/songwriter to the forefront of neo-soul. Critics and audiences alike were captivated by a 19-year-old singer whose tastes and influences stretched further than her years, encompassing everything from Prince to slick '70s soul, even a little Billie Holiday.
In retrospect, the idea of Alicia Keys was as appealing as the record, as soul fans were hungry for a singer/songwriter who seemed part of the tradition without being as spacey as Macy Gray or as hippie mystical as Erykah Badu while being more reliable than Lauryn Hill.
Keys was all of those things, and she had style to spare — elegant, sexy style accentuated by the way she never sang too much, which gave the music a richer feel. It was rich enough to make up for some of the thinness of the lyrics — though a big hit, “Fallin'” doesn’t have much body — which is a testament to Keys’ skills as a musician. And the fact is, while there are some lyrical sloppiness, they aren’t many, and the whole thing remains an astonishingly assured, successful debut that earned its immediate acclaim and is already aging well.
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