277. Alicia Keys, "The Diary of Alicia Keys"

 


If you've been reading this project for a while, you will know by now that the one genre I'm not really comfortable with my knowledge about - and in fact, don't really like all that much - is R&B.  I was never really exposed to much R&B, so I've never gotten totally familiar with it.  I mean, I can appreciate it, but it's really just not my thing.

So this album really was not my thing.  But that doesn't mean it's not great or doesn't deserve to be here!  Maybe it's just my lack of understanding.  Except contemporary reviews are also decidedly lukewarm.  From the Guardian:  "Her album seems similarly straitened: there are a handful of great moments, where risks are taken and ground is broken, but too often it opts for the familiar and the bland. Listening to The Diary of Alicia Keys, you can't help but wish she threw caution to the wind a little more often."  Even slavishly artist-friendly Entertainment Weekly piled on: "The album drifts into a narcotized semi-slumber of one earnest, samey retro-soul piano ballad after another. (The jarring exception is the sinewy 'Dragon Days,' which recalls the coiled energy of vintage Bill Withers hits.) Given Keys’ simmering voice and evident instrumental skills — and the encouraging fact that she’s showing off less in each area than she did on her debut — the results are all the more frustrating."

I guess that was kinda how I felt too.  A lot of the songs kind of blend together; there's not a lot to differentiate them.  No doubt, there's some good stuff on here; I liked "Harlem Nocturne," the album's opener, wherein Keys gets to show off her famous classical piano training, but set against an almost trip-hoppy backbeat that kicks in about halfway through; it's a banger.  "Karma," the second song, has a great vocal melody and slick production.  On the other hand, the Kanye-produced "You Don't Know My Name" sounds unfinished, though, like Ye had some ideas and then got sidetracked and never finished it.

So I'll continue to explore that tension between what I personally like and what others think is artistically significant.  But on this one, I feel pretty confident saying it's good, not great.

Does this album deserve to be in the Top 500? Sorry, Alicia.

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