Alicia Keys – The Element of Freedom
3 stars out of 5

Is it possible to give 2.75 stars? Cause that’s what I would give this album. LOL, not quite 3 stars but not quite THAT bad either.

Overall, Alicia Keys delivers a suprisingly largely tepid album, chock full of rehashes of her old self, or others, or of preceding songs on the same record. The songs themselves are nothing to be a-twitter about, as she really doesn’t break any new ground with her writing. She takes on and adapts a largely 80′s sound on this album, and is considering that “growth”, since her last album was largely 70′s in its musical influences, particularly 70′s soul.

Her attempts at mixing 80′s pop and rock come off as overly pop and her soulfulness is lost admist a drege of attempts at power ballads and uninspired love-song lyrics. On top of that, her largely unimpressive vocal performances at time seem to be a bit much, as she vocally careens and barrels her way through a lot of these songs, leaving dynamics and tue passion on the cutting room floor. She teeters on the edge vocally between oversinging and screaming, leaving you hoping she isn’t flat from trying to hoard, deaf from listening, and hoarse from the attempt in the first place.

This album comes off as a calculated attempt at pop/crossover, but really, she’s already achieved that. As a 12 time Grammy award winner, there’s not many souls who don’t know who Alicia Keys is. So the album is a bit confusing and off-putting to long time fans. While there are some salvagable performances and songs, the album largely runs together into an never-ending cascade of piano, loud vocals and feelings of deja-vu. The singles were precisely right on in the impression that they gave about this album — you either love it or hate it, but hopefully you love it, because it’s 13-14 songs of sameness.

Track-by-track review after the jump.

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