Getting in the way of what I'm feeling

"Can you please write something positive?" my sister asked me on the phone last week. "Everything's asshole this, hate that, annoying this, douchebag that." While I would have loved get all Treach on her ass and spit, "Say something positive? Well positive ain't where I live," at her, I can't really refute what she's saying. It's true -- I've been grumpy lately. The only cliché I find more reliably truthful than "the grass is always greener" is "when it rains, it pours," so please forgive my recent shitstorm.

Alternately, if you have emotional cavities, please forgive me for the torrent of sweet nothings I'm about to unleash for the new Alicia Keys single, "No One." This song makes my balls tingle the same way that a roller coaster does. I haven't been as obsessed with an R&B song since Ne-Yo's "Because of You," and that's probably no coincidence (more on this in a sec). While I've never doubted her talent, I've always found Alicia to be somewhat overrated. Yes, she can play the piano and write songs, but I feel like early on, she was pegged as a virtuoso, while the reality is that generally what comes from her hands has the hypnotic stasis of played scales. Her voice is strong but ultimately plain-jane, and her songs tend to glide from the middle of the road into a ditch ("adult"-minded shit like "Diary" or "A Woman's Worth" is so boring, it practically puts itself to sleep). She's had plenty of great singles, don't get me wrong ("Girlfriend," "You Don't Know My Name," "If I Ain't Got You") -- I just would warn anyone to not believe the hype.

Until now, probably. Her trajectory sort of reminds me of Kate Bush's -- of course, Kate's weirder and more self-consciously arty (after all, she doesn't have to answer to the inherently trite foundation of the soul tradition), but she turned in two rather laconic albums (The Kick Inside and Lionheart), before revealing her most crucial strength as an artist -- production. It was with her third album, 1980's Never For Ever, that Kate blazed the path she'd follow to musical genius and, with any luck, Alicia will follow modified suit when As I Am drops Nov. 13. "No One" gives all indication that it will, as Keys (joined behind the boards by perma-partner Krucial, as well as Dirty Harry) is, for maybe the first time, banking on nuance via her song's production.

"No One" could have been any one of Keys songs without its details. If it were missing Keys' near-crazed vocals, if it were missing the analog keyboard that worms in during the chorus, if it were missing that 4/4 stomp, it'd be just another fluffy Keys track I'd flip past on the radio. Thank god it isn't. I can't be totally sure, but I believe that Alicia wrote "No One" in a range that's just above her own, so that virtually every note she sings is strained (a trick used by Ike Turner on Tina -- he was a sadist, Alicia's a masochist). Her dirtied-up passion alone could sell the song -- her reggae-like bellowing is part "No Woman, No Cry," part Mary J. in Ghostface's "All That I Got Is You" (check the bridge at 2:44 and try not to weep at the fact that Blige's singing wasn't used for the video). A classier joint might have placed strings (or even horns) in the place of that analog keyboard I mentioned -- it's extremely Stevie Wonder of her to consciously choose the synthesized over the organic. There's something politely fuck-you about her force of electronics upon her audience. Fuck me, too.

And then there's that 4/4 beat, the love of my life. It's so insane how present it's become again, and loathe as I am to admit it, I have Justin Timberlake (via Timbaland) to thank. Not that I was really there, but it feels like the '70s again, when disco was so pervasive that everything slow and fast had that 4/4 stomp. Songs like "No One" and Ne-Yo's "Because of You" serve as the downtempo counterpoints to the candy-house trend that Justin's "SexyBack" set and Timbaland's "The Way I Are" and Britney's "Gimme More" have continued. Alicia's and Ne-Yo's tracks are the "It Ain't No Big Thing"s and "I Just Want To Be Your Everything"s of their day. I'm absolutely tickled that house, or some weird approximation of it, is on the comeback trail and I'm almost stupefied that it's coming at us from multiple angles. House is a feeling and it's gushing right now.

And so am I. Alicia isn't changing society with her message or anything ("It will only get better," "People keep talking / They can say what they like," hmmm...where have I heard such sentiments before? Oh yeah. EVERYWHERE.), though the R&B world would be a better place if it were full of the passion and gentle weirdness that Alicia exhibits here. She sells her clichés like R&B's going out of business. I feel lucky to be a consumer.

Comments

[rachel]

The song is really great. Yes the lyrics are simple but the WAY she sings it makes it have more meanning! I'm always like this girl believs what she is singing. It is her delivery that makes it stand out. Not because she has the best voice of our generation but because she believes it and she knows that her lyrics have a deeper meaning. The emotion that she puts into the second verse "when the rain is pouring down and my heart i hurting" its like I feel pain at that moment. Also i think you are right when U say this album will put her into the possibility of being a musical genius because she says there are different sounds on this album, she is using pedals with her keyboard that gives a whole new sound that people wouldn't expect, then they use diff mics to give different sounds on her vocals she is obviously singing in diff keys. As far as Alicia being overrated I think it is because she came from outta no where with a new sound doing things totally different from anyone else at that time and the media latched on. On top of that she was marketed as the next virtuoso, as the savior of soul music. She was put in that neo soul category but she had mainstream success. The thing I like about Alicia is that she didn't say those things about herself it is what people had to say. Now they wanna say she is overrated? Well they, you, I overrated her. All she did was put out some music that the public seems to love at least the numbers would say they love it. I became a fan when I saw Alicia live I bought her second album almost a year after it was released cause I listened to a friend's she was doing a show so me and some friends went after that I had to go back and buy the first album. Her unplugged CD is great too cause she can sing live. A lot of artist can't do that now a days! I'm excited for her new CD i think it is going to be a breath of fresh air!

[Sara Paxton]

You make me so proud to love music. I knew exactly what you were talking about in every sentence. Wow, Seriously, I have been grumpy too lately, maybe I should go apologize to my friends...

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I want to say - thank you for this!

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[Jordans 4]

Just for today I will have a quiet half hour all by myself and relax. During this half hour, sometime, I will try to get a better perspective of my life.