I could not get it to play on my computer. First things first: this copy-protection crap ruined my listening experience. Initially I was going to hold off on buying the cd in stores and was going to get it thru my music club, but I decided I had to have the new A. Her vocals are more mature & the reduced arrangements play to the bands talents. This may be my all time favorite of her songs? When I minus the Hip Hop tunes which just don't appeal much to me, "Unplugged" ends up being very good. When she sings "You Don't Know My Name," it is juiced up a bit with the organ. His nasal tone did not blend that well with Alicia's voice. Her duet with Adam Levine doing the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" was ok. I feel she truly shined with Brenda Holloway's "Every Little bit Hurts." She seemed very in tune with the feel of this song as the emotion came through.
Then again, Alicia could sing the names in the phonebook & I would applaud. Some will not like her version of Gladys Knight's "If I Was Your Woman?" But, for me it was almost equal to the original. She belts out Prince's "How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore" with a near furious vocal. "Stolen Moments," could have been a bit better since it was co-written by the king of R&B, Al Green. In "Streets Of New York," the first part with her recitation is ok, but the second part with it's jazzy tones blend well with her more controlled voice. She gives a more seductive tone to "Diary & If I Ain't Got You." The former is one of my all time favorites. Her voice sounds more balanced than on her first album. "Fallin," gets a semi-operatic treatment here. She occasionally goes from the Piano to Organ with equal dexterity. Tammy La GorceĪlicia's album is a fine gem, here the slightly scaled back sound allows her vocals to shine. The best "Unplugged" discs leave a listener wishing artists would kick the amps altogether this is one of them. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. The "powers that be" couldn't have chosen better than Alicia Keys.
Alicia keys unplugged series#
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.