Unlike most singers cast in the diva role, who are all about pipes and persona, Alicia Keys is a multifaceted artist adept at songwriting and arranging as well as vocal emoting. For that reason, she’s among the current performers least in need of help from studio pros — yet the fingerprints of high-dollar assistants are all over As I Am. Their influence isn’t fatal, but the disc feels less distinctive than it should, given the talent of the performer pictured on its cover. The main string-puller here is Pink collaborator Linda Perry, who assists on numbers such as “Superwoman,” a relatively lukewarm popper that requires Keys’s herculean effort to lift it off the ground. Also problematic is “Lesson Learned,” costarring Man with the Bland John Mayer. “Wreckless Love,” which Keys handles on her own, is far livelier; the format-crossing hit “No One” simmers persuasively; and the album as a whole remains thoroughly listenable. Still, As I Am would have been stronger if it allowed Keys to show who she truly is.
This article appears in Dec 13-19, 2007.