Alicia Keys' Songcraft Remains Consistently Good on The Element of Freedom

Artist:  Alicia Keys
Title:  The Element of Freedom
Labels:  RCA, Jive

Love lost, found and everything in between is the focal point of Keys' latest work ...

Recently landing quite a honor, the No. 5 spots on Billboard's "Artist of the Decade" list, singer/songwriter Alicia Keys has consistently crafted compelling, piano-based R&B pop that covers a wide spectrum of human emotion. And she's even got 12 GRAMMY Awards to prove it.

Apparently not keen to rest on her laurels, Keys keeps pushing herself artistically with The Element of Freedom, a reflective treatise on the ups and downs of love. 

While singing about love isn't exactly new territory in the pop music universe, Keys offers a decidedly more personal take on the subject. Instead of resorting to familiar platitudes and Hallmark card sentimentality, Keys aspires for something more, something deeper. And the piano-based soundtrack merged with funky R&B beats is the perfect backdrop for such reflection.

Whether she's vowing to always be the woman her man needs in "That's How Strong My Love Is," singing about how love's transforming power is ultimately freeing ("How It Feels to Fly") or asserting that even the best things that can money can buy (something she probably knows a little something about, given her widespread success) can't substitute for true human connection ("Doesn't Mean Anything"), she belts these sentiments out with the conviction of someone who's been there.

Refreshingly optimistic even when things go wrong, too, but not in a sappy, candy-coated way, Keys is an advocate for prayer in the most confusing moments in "Wait ‘Til You See My Smile: "Sometimes in your life you don't see straight/Pray to Him, and He will show you." 

Ultimately, these glimpses of God are few are far between on The Element of Freedom, but there's certainly indication that Keys understands the value of reaching out to God in life's most challenging moments. 

That doesn't mean that she still doesn't struggle with equating love with sex, though. In "Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart," she elaborates on how much she misses a physical connection with her ex, a theme that's later repeated in "The Bed" and "Love is My Disease."

However, unlike many pop stars of today, Keys seems to place a higher premium on fidelity, sacrificial love and the desire to be in lasting relationships, rather than bouncing from fling to fling. And in today's culture where relationships are often disposable and self-serving, this is a welcome and refreshing change of pace from the norm.


**This review first published on January 11, 2010.