Alicia Keys - Mtv Unplugged
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CD Details
Artist: Alicia KeysBrand: Jive
Edition: Music CD
Format: Enhanced
CD Release Date: 2005-10-11
Music Label: J-Records
Product features:
- KEYS ALICIA UNPLUGGED
- Intro A Cappella
- Karma
- Heartburn
- A WomanÂ?s Worth
- Unbreakable
- How Come You DonÂ?t Call Me
- If I Was Your Woman
- If I AinÂ?t Got You
- Every Little Bit Hurts
- Streets Of New York
- Wild Horses (Feat. Adam Levine)
- Diary
- You DonÂ?t Know My Name
- Stolen Moments
- FallinÂ?
- Love It Or Leave It Alone (Feat. Mos Def & Common) / Welcome To Jamrock (Feat. Damian Marley, Mos Def, Common & Friends)
Music reviews of Mtv Unplugged
Music Review: The first CD that she's released that's actually worth picking up!
Rating: 3 Stars
I must admit that I am moderately impressed with this CD, and this is the first one that she has put out that I can say that about. She is still way overrated though. The strengths that Alicia does have lie mostly in her abilities as a performer, because she is really not of much a composer. This CD gives her a forum that plays to her strengths. I do give Keys some credit for actually injecting some emotion into her cover of Prince's "How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore" this time around, and "Fallin" where she, uh hem, subtlely borrows James Brown's "It's A Man's Man's World", comes across as even more heartfelt and sincere, but she is far from the virtuoso or musical prodigy that the Clive Davis hype machine makes her out to be. For one thing, she struggles in playing rhythm and lead on the piano if the sections (the rhythm section in particular) are a step or two beyond rudimentary, but this is something that anybody who is touted as an exceptionally talented piano player should be able to do proficiently. Alicia is a moderately skilled piano player but she is far from an especially gifted one. There are better fairly contemporary piano players in the music industry. Tori Amos for example is a much better piano player than Alicia Keys, but she doesn't have the record label/music industry hype machine touting her as an especially gifted pianist. But, you don't have to be a virtuoso to be a compelling artist, so that is not even Alicia's biggest problem. Her problem is that she has virtually no interesting or original ideas. Her and Adam Levine's cover of The Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" (off of their album, "Sticky Fingers") is decent, and so is her Gladys Knight cover "If I was your woman", but where are her own exceptional original ideas? (the Maybelline or actually it may be L'oreal commercial "inspired" `A Woman's Worth' doesn't quite cut it, even though I must admit that her performance of this song on this CD is a marked improvement) "Fallin" is basically an uncredited cover of a James Brown song, "Diary" was created with Dwayne Wiggins from `Tony Toni Tone', and "You don't know my name" is produced by Kanye West and built on an obvious sample, so you want to explain to me once again how it is that Keys is so talented and creative? Most of the performances of these songs are actually pretty strong which is why I still think that this album is worth buying, but she does almost nothing unique with the arrangements, which is even more evidence that she is lacking as a composer. As far as the new single, "Unbreakable", numerous other hip hop and r&b acts scored moderate hits in the mid-nineties using that same Eddie Kendricks sample, so the idea is far from original, and the lyrics on this song are some of the lamest that I've heard from her, or anyone else for that matter ( I hope that this is not a signal of the direction that she is headed into because in spite of the things that I point out in this review, she actually does show promise on this release). In general, as a lyricist, she is quite mediocre. Her best stuff can't even hold a candle to Erykah Badu's or India Arie's just to name a few of her contemporaries. She is FAR from an Aretha Franklin so I don't even know where that comparison comes from. That's just downright absurd. This CD is really not bad even if it seems that I'm making it sound that way, it's just that it's simply good for what it is: the showcase of a moderately skilled young musician doing her thing and actually showing some promise this time around. That's a message that the hype machine needs to take notice of.
Description of Mtv Unplugged
First they went platinum...Now they're going green. Your best loved music in its simplest form. 20 best-selling "Greatest Hits" & "Best of" collections now available in a new eco-friendly package. 1CD in card wallet packaging - no plastic, no booklet - just great music! Booklets are available online through a unique URL on the package.With MTV's decision to revive its much-missed "Unplugged" series came a certain obligation: Whoever was going to kick the shows off needed to have the means to deliver serious heat, Grammy-vote garnering heat. The "powers that be" couldn't have chosen better than Alicia Keys. Throughout this consistent set, marked by warmth, sincerity and a powerful lack of inhibition, Keys convinces that if she's not the new Aretha Franklin, she's a force of equal might and measure. All the favorites are here, the danceable "Karma" carries into the funky "Heartburn" and the give-it-up glory of "Unbreakable." "Fallin'," "If I Ain't Got You," and "You Don't Know My Name" come later, but interspersed are enough pleasant surprises to make even fanatical Keys followers forget the signature songs. Prince's "How Come You Don't Call Me," for instance, gets a playful work-up, complete with audience-aimed banter and an unbroken promise to "take it to the bridge," and a duet that on paper seems misguided works surprisingly well, as Keys resists any instinct to clobber Maroon 5's Adam Levine vocally. Yowling, piano pounding, hip-hop tics (the ubiquitous, emphatic "unh"), and even a spot of theatrical poetry all have their places here, but Keys manages them with a master's sense of what's song-appropriate. Her band is spot-on, her arrangements soar, and her guests--count Mos Def and Common among them--complement the proceedings without even momentarily carrying them. The best "Unplugged" discs leave a listener wishing artists would kick the amps altogether; this is one of them. --Tammy La Gorce
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