Alicia Keys

ALICIA

This politically engaged seventh album plays to the singer's strengths, exuding warmth and cautious optimism, with an emphasis on her masterful balladry.

All told, it’s a fine album which balances hyper mainstream appeal with some very interesting diversions, but it raises the nagging question of what a Keys album where she drops the showbiz and kicks out the jams the whole way through would sound like.

Keys demonstrates her remarkable gift for classic soul-indebted melody through some stranger – and certainly more eclectic – sounds than she’s tried before.

Keys has pitched this album as genreless and, although the sonics are manifold – reggae, R&B, funk and even country – you get the sense that Keys has her eyes more on the narrative.

The woman with a piano sample-library named for her barely tickles the ivories here, instead relying on her exquisitely malleable voice, slickly inventive production tics, and and winning vocal support.

That Alicia is at once her most accessible and forward-minded album in years seems fitting for an artist who, until recently, has made a career out of playing things straight down the middle.

‘ALICIA’ is an impressive record to her career and her return to music. A perfectly balanced album that matches her newfound vibe as a woman ready to tell her truth.

She says her seventh album is her most authentic and personal to date, but for many listeners, its openness will be familiar.

Even with the R&B-leaning roster of guests -- Jill Scott and Snoh Aalegra are also on board -- Alicia is Keys' most moderate work, seemingly hedged with an objective to appeal to as many listeners as possible.