There is good material – the Bond-theme orchestration of Nat King Cole the sweet paean to spring Daffodils (or is it an allegory about the end of the Trump regime, or the loosening of Covid restrictions?) – but more often its contents provoke faint praise: it’s pretty, nicely played.
The first album exists in a space bordered by classic soul, early-70s singer-songwriters, the more upmarket end of MOR and jazz, which is pretty much where Keys started out, albeit without a song as undeniable as her breakthrough hit Fallin’. Its author has likened it to contemporary remix albums of old tracks by Nina Simone, someone a less self-assured artist might think twice about comparing themselves to, particularly given what’s on offer here. Nor does it feel like the spread betting of Shania Twain’s 2002 album Up!, which came out simultaneously in country, pop and Bollywood versions. The Originals versions carry neither the show-me-your-workings quality of demos, nor the raw, stripped-down force of “unplugged” sessions – they’re slickly produced in their own right. It’s a strange and perhaps unique enterprise. She also found time to write and record her eighth album, which is an hour and a half and 26 tracks long: it’s effectively the same album twice, first in “broken down” “Originals” versions – the same phrase she used to describe her piano-and-vocals version of Empire State of Mind – then versions described as “Unlocked”, which feature Mike Will Made It co-producing with Keys. In the time since Covid-19 hit, Alicia Keys has variously released and promoted an autobiography launched her own “skincare and wellness” brand recorded and released a collaborative single with Brandi Carlile encouraging voter registration in the US election promoted a 20th-anniversary edition of her debut album, Songs in A Minor helmed a 21-day online meditation programme in collaboration with Deepak Chopra starred in her own YouTube docuseries, Noted, alongside her husband Swizz Beatz (“Episode 3: Me And Swizz Are Holding Nothing Back About Our Love”) appeared in commercials for Mercedes-Benz and US insurance company Allstate and announced her first graphic novel. But when considering Keys’ hopelessly unproductive pandemic, it’s probably worth noting that some people’s idea of being not knowing how to work involves in front of Netflix while drunkenly balancing a takeaway on their ever-swelling stomach – and some people’s, well, doesn’t.
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