Okay so here's the thing

  After listening to the most beautiful woman in the world/Alicia Key's Fallen/ A Woman's Worth (one of my fave videos), I still haven't quite recovered from the fact that her voice doesn't sound anything like it does on those two track. That's not to say I don't like her.. though I still feel those 7 Grammy's she won the year of Fallen was outrageous.. just like I think the Grammy's giving U2's how to dismantle an atomic bomb best album of the year over Kanye's college dropout was outrageous.
  Anywhoo, I bought a bootleg copy of Alicia Keys' first CD Songs in A Minor when I was visiting Sri Lanka 9 years ago (as well as every michael jackson cd and jennifer lopez too lol) which was, in retrospect, the first time I realized I was duped and that Alicia Keys' (whose last name, incidently, wasn't even really Keys.. which I originally thought was a happy coincidence) voice is one of limited range and echoes of a genre that is not as markatable or poppy as her first two singles and can't decide if it's quite jazz or r&b or neither. As I was listening to my disc-man while driving up the mountains of Nuwara Eliya, I was harsh, critical and angered at Alicia Keys' terrible product (well that combined with the fact that my mosquito bites that had swollen up to the size of oranges and were beyond irritating.. I know, I'm sexy). When I finally came home I packed the CD into it's spot on the shelf and let it collect dust.
  Two years later, that sneaky piano player went and released You Don't Know My Name. Mos Def, the love of my life (sorry JMac) was cast in it. Stupid lady, now I'm forced to listen to your song and realize hey, it's not that bad, I think maybe I'll listen Songs in A Minor again. Wait a minute, these songs aren't half bad! In fact, 10/15 songs are pretty freakin good:
1. Piano & 1 (intro)
2. Girlfriend
3. How Come U Don't Call Me (This is my fave song to sing a long to)
4. Fallin'
5. Troubles (Good Music Bad Vocals)
6. Rock Wit U (Good Music Bad Vocals)
7. A Woman's Worth
8. Jane Doe
9. Goodbye
10. The Life (Not Bad)
11. Mr. Man (featuring Jimmy Cozier)  Awesome song, prob my fave on the CD
12. Never Felt This Way (interlude)
13. Butterflies
14. Why Do I Feel So Sad 
15. Caged Bird (outro)
 Fine, I always thought Alicia Keys was stunning/ gorgeous which is the reason I never threw the CD out (which I had done a lot as a child.. sorry Abba.. if I had known I'd end up loving your music 15 years later I never would have thrown out your CD when I was 8 years old).
  The thing is, Alicia Keys built up this fantastic repotoire with me (especially after releasing Diary (Feat. Tony! Toni! Tone! & Jermaine Paul)) and then it all came crashing down from 2005-2009, as she produced a string of bad song (I'm talking about Alicia Keys' Unplugged's Every Little Bit Hurts and Unbreakable, Like You'll Never See Me Again with her silly sounding raspy "sexy" voice, Try Sleeping with A Broken Heart and the horrific Empire State of Mind (which I probably would have loved if the chorus was 100% different/ less horrible)). She makes me work so hard, sorting through her inconsistent music for the gems. Don't get me wrong, when the gems are uncovered, it's always worth it. Teenage Love Affair had slightly redeeming qualities to it but I was left with a sour taste in my mouth and images of a Beyonce Part 2, with whom Ms. Keys released a horrific remix to Put it in a love song/ I'm going to chalk that one up to poor judgement.

  The whole point of this post was to tell you that I think we're going to be alright. It turns out, Alicia Keys can still make good music (and cute videos). Her new(ish) song Un-thinkable (I'm Ready) - written by Drake, originally for Nicki Minaj - starring her and the ever-cute, but wearing a really bad wig, dirty blonde, Chad Michael Murray (though I'm still mad at him for choosing the ugly, orange-haired she-devil Peyton over Brooke). So I guess that's how she hooks me. Alicia Keys goes and casts sexy men in her videos to remind me that, despite her limited vocal range, she can still produce quality music. Sneaky Sneaky.


p.s. she should be pregnant with the guy in the video for A Woman's Worth not the ugly gremlin with 10 children named Swiss (Cheese) Beatz