Girl On Fire

10 years with Alicia Keys

Three years have passed since the last album of Alicia Keys in 2009, and now she is back with another portion of songs in RnB and neo-soul style. What can we say about New York diva? Ten years ago we heard about Alicia for the first time, yes, that is much time has passed since her absolutely stunning debut album Songs In A Minor. The album was very successful and very popular, an album circulation back in 2001 passed the mark of 10 million albums worldwide. At the beginning of her career Ms. Keys wins five Grammy Awards overnight in the categories "Song of the Year", "Best Female Vocal RnB-Performance", "Best RnB-Song", "Best New Artist" and "Best RnB-album". Legacy of Songs In A Minor rattles so far, because the album was certified as platinum six times. Also it is worth noting that Alicia is always running at full capacity, always bringing a quality product to the listener, the variety of albums released by the singer do not include even gold albums, all are platinum. And what else if not the reaction and album acceptance of the listener tells us about the quality of the music. Such a solid positive experience promises bright and colorful return to the music scene. Of course, there will be sensual piano; of course, there will be soulful voice and catchy songs, because Alicia is back and ready to rock with her new album Girl On Fire.

Flammable Girl On Fire

The first track De Novo Adagio immediately makes it clear who we are dealing with, lightweight, unobtrusive piano plunks create an atmosphere of calm, relaxed and elegant beauty of an expensive restaurant or hotel with live sound or piano concerto with the meter of the genre. In any case, there are no abrupt movements, plunks and strong rhythms. Tranquil, quiet, peaceful pace we take to move from the first instrumental track to the second Brand New Me. Piano theme continues, but now melody is joined by Alisha's voice and light drums. One of the main themes of the album is stated on the second track, and it is I am not who I was before. Alicia returned to us, but returned different: updated, but in her original packaging of quality, elegant sound and voice. To the third track lyrical side slowly goes to the background, the album becomes a little bit more aggressive, but does not turn into constant insane beat. From melodic soul Alicia gradually passes to RnB. Notable examples of this style on the album are by far the song New Day, which came out last summer as a single for the album, and Girl On Fire, a track that gave the name to the album. We should say that by the middle the album flares up and burns in full force on these two tracks. And following logic of the flame, at the end of the LP light aggression and electronic beat calm down and form a ring composition, the album closes on tracks One Thing and 101 that remind the beginning of the album according to the feelings included and general melodies - calm, sensual and elegant.

Balance, beauty and harmony

Alicia gave us an album recorded in an exclusive style: singing in high register, piano chords and minimalistic arrangements. Soul and RnB are intertwined on this album, and what pleases the most is a perfect correlation between the fiery rhythms of RnB and touching melodies of soul. As we said the album has ring structure, so one can put on repeat and listen to these 15 songs over and over again. Besides Alicia Keys showed us that she does not stand still, and the sound of 2001 was in 2001, now she tries and goes with modern styles that on the album range from soul, hip-hop to rock and reggae. Despite this diversity of styles, Girl On Fire album has the average tempo. Yes, it is not like crazy dubstep beat or epic guitar plunks or tough gangsta rap. Everything is recorded very classic, elegant and beautiful. The main themes chosen by Alicia are the relationship between men and women and religion. This is not surprising, because nowadays Alicia Keys is a caring mother and loving wife. So it is quite appropriate content for her songs. But this does not mean that Alicia became old, she follows the fashion and is not going to retire. That is why she deserves the utmost esteem and all sorts of respect. The album shows Alisha doing her favorite things – writing, composition and singing ... and let it be so.