Alicia Keys: Girl On Fire — Album Review

Looking at the cover of this album, I expected that the smooth R&B tones and elegant piano playing that I associate with Alicia Keys might have been made more edgy and dark. I shouldn’t have judged the book by its cover.

Girl On Fire, Key’s fifth studio album, provided me with all the smoothness I expected, but with an added intensity on the opening tracks.

De Novo Adagio, the intro, is a 1:19 track that I wished would go on even longer. The piano only introduction is such a beautiful and soft opener from Keys that I really wanted to hear the music build into the second track before I heard her voice.

But what a voice it is.

As the second track, Brand New Me builds from light piano and muted strings to crashing drums, Alicia Keys shows us that her voice is as strong as ever, wailing but never wavering, demonstrating her great vocal control.

When It’s All Over and Listen to Your Heart add a little electro-pop and synth to the R&B undertones, while New Day brings a head banging snare beat to back an energetic track. Listen to Your Heart also features the cutest guest feature on an album, featuring her toddler, Egypt.

A guest feature from Nicki Minaj opens the title track, which is definitely the most memorable on the album. There are plenty of whoa-ohs to sing along to as Keys shows us the power in her voice. Oh yeah, and everything in the song is on fire. Like, even the whole world.

The rest of the album feels like a downward spiral into relaxed R&B, almost as if Keys got tired of being edgy and decided that things would just be easier if she could just sit at a piano and croon. That’s not a bad thing though. There is a great duet with Frank Ocean on Fire We Make that makes me confused as to which singer has a higher range.

Overall, I enjoyed the first half of this album a lot more than the second half, but people who love R&B in a more pure form will truly enjoy the second half of the album too.

I’d give it 4 unicorns out of 6 antelope.