Alicia Keys returns with her first album in four years, sounding refreshed, empowered and more politically aware than ever.
Alicia Keys/ Here
When 20-year-old piano player Alicia Keys released her breakthrough single, Fallin', back in 2001, no one had really anticipated its chart-slaying, classic-becoming potential. On paper, the song was just a run-of-the-mill neo-soul piano ballad about falling in and out of love. But what Keys brought to the table amid gossamer piano melodies and basic drum programming was the edgy attitude manifested through her slow-burning delivery -- a masterful exercise in restraint. It sure didn't hurt either that its message was also straightforward and universally relatable ("I keep on fallin'/In and out of love with you/Sometimes I love ya/Sometimes you make me blue"). In a lot of ways, it shared sonic traits with Macy Gray's I Try, another neo-soul hit released a few years prior.
Over the course of five studio albums released throughout the last 15 years, Keys has continued to treat us to her brand of piano-driven offerings, spawning hits including If I Ain't Got You, No One, Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down and Girl On Fire, taken from her slightly tame and predictable last LP of the same name. After taking a short break, the New York pianist/singer-songwriter is back with her sixth record, Here, along with personal stories and feisty political statements.
The Beginning (Interlude) opens with a short manifesto in which the singer-songwriter, accompanied by light piano tinkling, recounts her own strife as an artist: "I'm Nina Simone in the park and Harlem in the dark/I'm the musical to the project fables/I'm the words scratched out on the record label". This melts into The Gospel, a hard-hitting hip-hop number that recalls the angry Beyoncé on Lemonade while she discusses black experience ("The roaches and the rats, heroin and the cracks/Couldn't blame me, I'm just giving the facts").
In Common, places Keys in the thick of tropical lite-dancehall, the de rigueur production frequently adopted by the likes of Rihanna and Drake. "Who wants to love somebody like me?/You wanna love somebody like me?," she quips to a flurry of drum machine beats. "If you could love somebody like me/You must be messed up too." To date, this is the most musically on-trend she's been and it suits her surprisingly well. Pawn It All and She Don't Really Care_1 Luv could have been made by Lauryn Hill. Girl Can't Be Herself is a soundtrack for her free-makeup movement, while Where Do We Begin Now? celebrates same-sex relationships.
With all of its thought-provoking songs and interludes, Here stands among some of this year's best politically-charged releases (Blood Orange, Solange). Touching upon various social issues from #BlackLivesMatter to #NoMakeUp, Keys channels her inner activist through the production that feels fresh and current, thanks in part to her producer/husband Swizz Beatz. Here is by far the boldest statement, musically and politically, from one of the most talented artists of the 21st century.
THE PLAYLIST
Stoondio/ Tinder
Chotika Kamwongpin has been crafting bedroom indie-folk under the moniker Stoondio since 2012. While her two studio releases were anchored in lo-fi DIY aesthetics, Stoondio's upcoming third album finds her stepping up her production game with a more fleshed-out sound. Lead single, Tinder, talks about the pains of being essentially 'friend-zoned' in the age of dating apps. Upbeat melodies, tropical guitar chords, muscular drums -- if these things signal a new musical direction for Stoondio, count us in.
The xx/ On Hold
The xx's new single, On Hold, sees Jamie bringing his nimble sampling skills to the table, breathing a fresh, new life into Hall & Oates' classic I Can't Go for That (No Can Do). "I don't blame you/We got carried away/I can't hold on to an empty space," murmurs Romy Madley Croft in the opening verse. Over a brewing synth wash and minimal drum machine, Oliver Sim takes over, "And every time I let you leave/I always saw you coming back to me/When and where did we go cold?/I thought I had you on hold." Despite melancholic undertones, the song radiates pastel-hued warmth and subdued vibrancy that wouldn't sound out of place on Jamie's excellent 2015 solo debut, In Colour.
Milky Chance/ Cocoon
Following their breakout debut Sadnecessary in 2013, German indie-pop duo Milky Chance are now gearing up for the release of their sophomore studio record with a new cut called Cocoon. Built on laid-back, tropical guitar grooves, the track doesn't stray too far from the winsome sonic aesthetics of their previous hits Stolen Dance and Flashed Junk Mind. "So let's go back to our cocoon/On the blackened afternoon/I see your heart is bleeding too/Let me bleed instead of you," vocalist Clemens Rehbein sings in his signature throaty slur.
John Legend (feat Chance the Rapper)/ Penthouse Floor
Not to be outshined by Bruno Mars' Versace on the Floor, R&B crooner John Legend treats us to Penthouse Floor, a funky mid-tempo number that draws its influences from soul and gospel. Lifted from Legend's forthcoming album, Darkness and Light, the track is an ode to escapism from the chaotic world to the comfort of a penthouse floor. It also boasts a rap verse courtesy of Chance the Rapper who appears towards the end of the song with a riff on a classic knock-knock joke.
Mikhael Paskalev/ Witness
Liverpool-based, Norwegian-Bulgarian singer-songwriter Mikhael Paskalev has a knack for crafting earworms firmly based in rootsy, retro influences. In the tradition of his earlier releases Jive Babe and I Spy, Paskalev's latest offering, Witness, features springing '80s melodies, swaggering guitars and a good drizzling of electronic flourishes. As for the lyrics, they're as life-affirming as they come -- a perfect antidote to that lingering post-election blues: "Keep dancing/A witness in the shadow of our love tonight/Keep dancing/You ain't guilty of anything that ain't right."
