Alicia Keys is not just a singer, songwriter or pop star. She is a musician first and foremost – a master of her craft, shifting and shaping melodies and rhythms on impulse and intuition. So her new live album, Unplugged, is pretty much a no-brainer.
Keys’ mark on MTV’s acclaimed Unplugged series – which has been blessed with performances by Mariah Carey, Jay-Z and Nirvana, to name a few – is a joyful, soulful and raucous affair. Keys runs through her hits, jazzing them up by adding extra horns, “Oohs” and “Yeahs,” and extending songs for the audience to sing and clap along to. On “How Come You Don’t Call Me,” Keys turns her back-up singers into a Greek chorus full of calls and responses; when she asks “Can I get an alright?” her chorus of back-up singers chime in with, “Well, alright!” It’s a classic live-show touch, but then again, Keys is a student of classic musicianship, so it’s a given.
Keys doesn’t just run through old material, she gets the crowd moving in their seats with her upbeat ode to famous black couples in “Unbreakable:” “We could fight like Ike and Tina/Or give back like Bill and Camille/Be rich like Oprah and Stedman/Or instead struggle like Flow and James Evans/Cause he ain’t no different from you and she/Ain’t no different from me.” It’s an uplifting dedication to love and ambition with Keys working her magic on the piano while her band builds up the song throughout the verse to get to the hook, where Keys chants, “Unbreakable!” Keys makes the song a statement and manages to make it sound like a blast at the same time. The song is so vivid, it’s almost hard not to imagine this song in its live format.
Of course an Unplugged album isn’t complete without a duet, and Keys brings along the most in-demand, blue-eyed soul singer out right now: Maroon 5’s Adam Levine. Levine is clearly trying to pick up Justin Timberlake’s recently lost title as the “cool white guy” in hip-hop and R&B. Levine’s already popped up on records with the Ying Yang Twins and Kanye West, so hearing him croon alongside Keys isn’t a stretch. The twosome performs an angelic rendition of the Rolling Stones song, “Wild Horses.” It sounds like Keys is following in the footsteps of Mariah Carey, when in 1992 she covered the Jackson 5 classic “I’ll Be There” and rode that cover all the way to the top of the charts. Keys’ cover song isn’t quite as momentous as Carey’s, but is nonetheless a worthy attempt.
Keys proves what most people already knew – that she is a rarity among her breed today. She isn’t just a face or a singer; she’s a full-fledged musician. Could Ciara put out an Unplugged album like Keys? Of course not. But sometimes, she lets that get the best of her, and once in a while, she does go a little overboard with the improvisations. But that’s the excitement of live music – it’s spontaneous, moving and yet still familiar. Keys’ live album is worthy of applause and also the perfect thing to tide us over until her next release.
