Alicia Keys
Girl On Fire

Alicia Keys is part of that small group of artists, singers, and performers who are against the exaggeration of sexuality, eroticism, and allure. They are vocally gifted and have a refined, unique, and inviting charisma. These artists have had the fortune/misfortune of turning an apparently harmless song into a radio hit in heavy rotation. Although this transformation was a significant commercial leap forward, for a considerable portion of fans and admirers who appreciated her for not being just another crude conquest of the mass media, the desperate cries of No One and the cinematic invasion of Empire State Of Mind (see glamorous-mischievous comedies like Sex And The City) have caused a star that seemed to shine brightly in the heavenly sound firmament to fall. And so, after the positive reception of Songs In A Minor and The Diary of Alicia Keys by both mainstream and anti-mainstream audiences, her subsequent titles—As I Am and The Element Of Freedom—were treated by many as similar to Britney productions, hyper-commercial pop works without soul or spirit, also filled with collaborations and features of questionable value, such as the desacralized and criticized duet with (the nonetheless talented) Beyoncé in Put It In A Love Song.

"Girl On Fire" perhaps represents the decisive crossroads between the definitive pop-light turn and the return to the muffled, fresh, and sophisticated sound of her debut and post-debut. The album, in itself, indeed seems to lean towards the latter choice, while not quickly veering towards a return to the origins: avoiding the birth of new hits, effectively abolishing features and collaborations with carefree and niche-despised colleagues (with the exception of the trashy rapper Nicki Minaj hired in the "Inferno Remix" of the eponymous first single—the only one perhaps reminiscent of the sweet nightmares of No One) and proposing a respectable handful of tracks that are not overly melodramatic or vocally exaggerated, Keys returns to shuffle retro soul, piano, classical atmospheres, non-glossy R&B, and innocent hip-hop influences into a pleasant, not copied or imitative record, quite balanced, suitable for the current slow transition from electronic artifice to more subdued and refined rhythms.

The work opens with the short piano-only ballad De Novo Adagio, a sort of recovery of the Alicia "fingers on the keys" from Fallin' and You Don't Know My Name, then expands into the autumn melancholy of Brand New Me and When It's All Over, one of the most unique and rich tracks, halfway between retro soul, hip-hop, and swinging rock. The title track Girl On Fire presents itself somewhat subdued, a classic Keys ballad weighed down by heavy percussion, while the Motown-inspired Tears Always Win, the crystallized R&B with ambient touches in the mystical Listen To Your Heart, the forgivable and teasing hip-hop ghetto-style pranks of Limitedless and New Day, the essential and effective piano ballet of Not Even The King, and the soul ecstasy in One Thing stand out decorously.

Has Alicia Keys of the early years of her career, at the peak of unanimous and cross-sectional mass appeal, distant from the schizophrenia of radio and music television and not beguiled by easy money with prime featuring to feed the charts, ever really returned? It's up to you to decide, aware nonetheless of being in front of a dignified artist, not prone to stripteases and suggestive starlet antics.

Alicia Keys, "Girl On Fire"

De Novo Adagio - Brand New Me - When It's All Over - Listen To Your Heart - New Day - Girl On Fire - Fire Me Wake - Tears Always Win - Not Even The King - That's When I Knew - Limitedless - One Thing - 101