Album Review: Alicia Keys “The Element Of Freedom”

It’s a well-known fact that adversity in an artist’s life can often lead to their most inspired work. Amy Winehouse wrote the album of the decade while coked up to the eyeballs, and Mary J Blige similarly was at her highest point artistically when she was at her highest point narcotically. Alicia Keys, newly ensconced in a relationship with producer Swizz Beatz, may well prove an exception to this rule with her fourth album, The Element of Freedom. Her loved-up status oozes from practically every note.

Fortunately, Alicia is too classy let the album descend into an outright cheesefest. Like her previous albums, Element merges a piano-heavy neo-soul vibe with hip-hop beats. This time out though, there are forays into other genres with a little faux reggae on the almost anthemic opener, Love Is Blind, and pure, military-beat driven pop on Put It In A Love Song, a duet with the ominpresent Beyonce which is ready for the singles chart Top 10. The mellow slow-jam Unthinkable (I’m Ready) seems to channel 80s Anita Baker.

It’s not entirely a shiny, happy album however. There’s musings on the perennial downside of being a touring artist – separation from a  loved one – on the retro This Bed and outright yearning on the sublime Distance and Time.  Even the songs of heartbreak allude to missing a lover, exhibit A being the stunning single Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart.  Here her breathy vocals ride hip hop beats enveloped in lush atmospheric synths, culminating in the most beguiling piano breakdown since the last Keys album. Doesn’t Mean Anything received criticism for being a weaker reheat of her massive hit No One, but the mournful piano and plaintive vocals work much better in the context of the album than on the radio.

There are a couple of filler moments  (Love Is Like the Sea springs to mind) and Alicia’s lyrics, while on point can’t hold a candle to the clever if sometimes impenetrable musings of, say, Winehouse. Vocally, however, Keys sounds more comfortable these days, working within what range she has. She’s not a belter, but the fragility and her vocal shadings make this a far more personal and moving record than most of her contemporaries have released recently. So while heartbreak may be good for artistic output, Alicia proves there can be no greater inspiration than good love.

****

Album Review – Rihanna “Rated R”

There comes a time in every pop starlet’s career when she must put aside her perky bubblegum hits, start wearing considerably less, and grind to “empowering” songs about sex. It’s all about growing as an artist, or more precisely, taking your fans with you as they themselves become fully formed adults. Rihanna is no exception to this rule -  alarm bells started ringing when the former singer of catchy island ditties was pictured with little more than barbed wire strategically covering her nipples.

Listening to Rated R for the first time is something of a shock. While her previous album Good Girl Gone Bad sounded like a disjointed singles collection that was ripe for iTunes cherry picking, Rated R is a fully formed album with dark themes, moody guitars (even drafting in Slash on Rockstar 101) and atmospheric synth sounds throughout. It takes several listens to get over the lack of immediate hooks and appreciate the album the old-fashioned way – as a work of art in its own right.

Some lyrics do focus on the sexual (“I like the way you pull my hair” she asserts on Rude Boy) and the profane – the f-word is dropped several times – but there are also forays into the subversive. The suicide themed Russian Roulette brought accusations of devil worship from religious crackpots, but it oozes tension; While on G4L, she ludicrously imagines herself as a girl gangster (“”I lick the gun when I’m done cos I know that revenge is sweet”).

Given the violent end to her relationship with Chris Brown, ballads such as Cold Case Love and Stupid in Love have a particular intensity, as if Rihanna has dumped the R&B ice queen persona and is finally using what voice she has to express herself as a woman with life experience. Even forays into flamenco rhythms on Te Amo or the more mainstream R&B/dance of Hard have musical elements that stay true to the themes of the album, making it a wonderfully cohesive listen.

There’s just one major problem, and that’s lack of hits ready to storm the radio. Wait Your Turn and Firebomb try their best, but are possibly constrained by the album’s tone.  By releasing what is essentially a concept album when her fans have been weaned on perfectly vacuous  dance pop such as Please Don’t Stop The Music, this album is a gamble. For all its moody intelligence and testimony as to where Rihanna is as a person today, she could well be playing russian roulette with her career.

****

Relatively successful

Album Review: Mariah Carey: E=MC2

After a return to sales domination with The Emancipation of Mimi, Mariah’s back, seemingly with a vengeance as Mariah’s acapella falsetto dissolves into the thoroughly banging hip hop beats of “Migrate”, Sadly, it’s the only convincing club track on the album, with Side Effects lacking effervescence and a truly excruciating attempt at Jamaican patois in the faux reggae of Cruise Control.

Mariah seems most comfortable when she’s crooning slinky midtempo jams and modern R&B ballads-with-a-beat. Of the midtempos, the remarkable For The Record, with its sultry coos, backward string effects and effective use of her famous whistle notes is a stand-out, as is the almost retro I’m That Chick. The aimed-at-the-YouTube generation single “Touch My Body”, suffers from girlish lyrics inappropriate for a woman of 40, while OOC and Thanx For Nothing will have you reaching for the skip button. This also applies to I’ll Be Loving You Long time, which, insanely, is the next single.

Previous ballads We Belong Together and Don’t Forget About Us were big hits for Mariah, so not wanting to stray from a winning formula, she duly brings us at least three ballads which contain elements of both these songs. The irresistible melody of I Stay In Love is the most successful, and Mariah finally acts her age on the world weary Love Story. But Mariah shows she still has an appetite for schmaltz with the gooey deserved flop single Bye Bye which uncomfortably combines lamenting lost loved ones with lashings of hip hop slang, and the ill advised and messy gospel of I Wish You Well sounds discordant and desperate.

On the upside, the famous voice sounds more agile and relaxed than any recording she’s done in the last ten years, and melisima is kept to a minimum, even if big, wide belts of old are conspicuous by their absence. And it’s refreshing that the album feels cohesive and not the multi-superproducer mess served up by some superstars with big album budgets. It’s clear that between the few highs and the couple of clangers, the midtempo middle ground is where Mariah seems most comfortable. There’s nothing wrong with that, but more quality control in both melody and production might help next time out.