Songs in the key of life.

FILE UNDER: A ramble in 2 parts


Something keeps pulling me back, me back...

PART ONE: Friday. Post work. Pre-party.

3 for 3.

In my book Alicia Keys is 3 for 3.

At least when it comes to pre-release singles, that is.

I remember the first time I heard her debut single Fallin. I was hitchin' a ride on that Late Bus. That's the one that comes two or three hrs after school ends, for the kids who want to hang out, get some tutoring in, or in my case, stay after school for some Academic Decathlon sessions.

The bus was awash with the sounds of kids talking, traffic buzzing, and breezes blowing in the wind.

And then there was the Wave.

Cause there's always the Wave.

94.7 the Wave to be exact.

It was there, but merely in the background as if it was providing the present soundtrack to what was this,

my,

so called life.

No one pays attention to the radio. We're all too busy chatting, sleeping, or kneckin' in the back to actually give a damn.

But this one made me listen.

This one stopped me dead in my tracks, they way all good singles do.

What was this? This soul, this fire, this passion radiating from the bus's speakers?

I never really found out that day. Part of a song block. Stuck in the middle.

But the song stayed on the brain. And a few days later I had a freshly downloaded copy of a much beloved album, Songs in A Minor.

Cut to a few years later. Bowdoin College. Post dinner with Paris, D-Rocka, and the gang.

Ride in the snow back to my apt.

"A Tauwan, you hear that new Alicia Keys yet?"

"What is this? This soul, this fire, this passion radiating from this Camry's speakers?"

The superbly Kanye West produced track You Don't Know My Name. Nearly six minutes of pure old school [as shown in the video], slow grooving bliss. Cell phone interlude and all.

Cut to the present.

All over the blogs.

New Alicia Keys.

No one.

Now me and first listens can be a little rough. It can go in one ear and out the other and get some shrugged shoulders and an "eh" from Tauwan Patterson. [See Jay-Z's Blue Magic, Rihanna's Umbrella, and Spoon's The Ghost Of You Lingers]But I live for this shit. I'm still the type of kid who loves it when a good lead single pulls me in and has me salivating til new release Tuesday comes around and I lose 10-15 dollars on that new disc.

I just need a walk with it. Me and my iPod on a warm, sunny walk through the streets of Los Angeles, and BAM(!) I'm sprung.

And that is how I fell in love with No one.

The raw, heart tugging burst of passion that is the lead single for Alicia's soul stirring new album As I Am.

A grower not a shower.

Because of No One I went in wanting track after track of that tarnished soul music, sequenced just right, coming at you bit by bit, second by second, vertebrate by vertebrate.

But it just didn't.

It was slow moving. Soul appeared in bits. And for some reason John Mayer thought it was a good idea to provide vocals for the track he put in work for. [Who does he think he is? Will.i.am?]

PART TWO: Monday. Post work. Pre-bedtime.

I don't know.

It's still the same Alicia. She's just a little older. A little wiser, and fully aware of who is she and/or wants to be.

It's all here.

It's in the way this album feels live without having that word or the word unplugged attached to it.

It's in the way she pushes and pulls, simmers and soars, showing that her voice, not the piano, could very well be her favorite instrument.

It's in the way her voice soars with youthful exuberance on the soulful odes to young, unsaturated love, Teenage Love Affair, and Wreckless Love.

It's in the way that the a few tracks [See John Mayer's Lesson Learned, and album close sure Looks Good To Me] reach for the Adult Contemporary sky without coming off as trite, overwrought, or outside her comfort zone.

It's in the way I found myself coming back, again and again. Starting at the top, and ending at the end, lost for what to play next when the disc came to a close.

Simply put, it's stunning and if you're not careful, will tug away at your heartstrings.

All here. The maturity. The fire. That passion. It's all here, laid bare, as if we've all gained access, yet again, to the Diary of Alicia Keys.

And seriously, how great is this damn song?



And let's not forget about this "destined to be a classic" [I'm talking popular at Black weddings and in emotional reconnecting scenes in future Tyler Perry vehicles for years to come classic] second single.