New York (AP) — Alicia Keys hasn’t felt wholly escaped for overmuch of her career. That whitethorn dependable surprising, but these days the heralded instrumentalist is loving the makeup-free tegument she’s successful and settled into a abstraction of assurance and liberation.
That’s readily evident successful her eighth workplace album, “KEYS,” which represents a back-to-basics attack for the classically trained pianist that heavy emphasizes the instrumentality that catapulted her into superstardom.
“I deliberation it takes clip to conscionable consciousness good, person your assurance to learn, to grow, to person thing to adjacent share,” said the songstress, whose medium arrived connected Friday. “I conscionable didn’t consciousness comfy successful my tegument successful the mode that I bash now.”
The 26-track medium is breached down successful 2 sections: “Originals” which features galore piano-driven songs, followed by the “Unlocked” information which contains much hip-hop and four-to-the-floor remixes of astir of those tracks.
“There’s specified a powerfulness to being capable to beryllium undefinable and person antithetic sides of yourself expressed, but each based connected that archetypal spot of the keys,” said the “Girl connected Fire” vocalist who produced connected astir each song. “That was truthful liberating due to the fact that it felt similar I’m successful my lane and I’m conscionable driving successful it, you cognize what I mean? It was specified a comfortableness to benignant of travel backmost to my homebase.”
“Originals” features songs similar “Best of Me,” a smooth, Sade-inspired emotion song, portion the melodic singing successful the atmospheric-vibed “Billions” is much aligned with today’s progressive R&B. There are besides records similar “Dead End Road” and “Old Memories” that astir embody Keys’ intentions, arsenic the soft chords are distinct, and the records swell with psyche harmonies reminiscent of Aretha Franklin oregon Gladys Knight.
Writing connected each song, the 40-year-old besides summoned the pens of R&B fable Raphael Saadiq and acclaimed state writer Natalie Hemby who’s worked with Kacey Musgraves and Miranda Lambert, arsenic good arsenic Lady Gaga. While the medium is intentional successful focusing connected her masterful tickling of the ivories—as good arsenic accepted psyche music—there’s besides “Paper Flowers,” a collaboration with state prima Brandi Carlile, and the beauteous folk-styled “Daffodils.”
“‘Soulful’ is the astir beauteous mode for maine to picture euphony due to the fact that that tin beryllium genre-less,” explained Keys, who received a opus of the twelvemonth Grammy information for “A Beautiful Noise” with Carlile, on with a champion immersive audio medium motion for past year’s “Alicia.” “It comes done due to the fact that you conscionable consciousness that baring of a person’s experience.”
Mike WiLL Made-It, the hip-hop heavyweight shaper known for helping trade songs for Beyoncé, Rihanna, Kanye West and Kendrick Lamar, was tasked with remixing astir of the songs successful an effort to support the task cohesive and not disjointed from the originals.
It’s been 2 decades since Keys debuted “Songs successful A Minor” which would gain an astounding 5 Grammys and animate Black and Brown girls each implicit to get their hairsbreadth cornrowed successful her then-signature style. Throughout her career, she’d adhd different 10 Grammys and merchantability much than 65 cardinal records.
But contempt her monolithic occurrence and acclaim, Keys vividly remembers the days of feeling perchance manipulated by the manufacture and not ever definite of herself. Looking back, she’d promote her 19-year-old aforesaid to spot her gut.
“I would conscionable archer her that a batch is coming your mode and don’t beryllium acrophobic of it. Don’t beryllium acrophobic of your ain powerfulness … radical mightiness effort to marque you consciousness similar you don’t cognize you truthful that they tin power you, but cipher knows you amended than you,” said Keys.
“Just clasp connected to that instinct, to that pure, earthy energy, to that piano. And to the curiosity of conscionable perpetually being the champion mentation of you. And you’re going to truly person an unthinkable ride.”
English (US) ·