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Friend-of-Idolator Michaelangelo Matos has a pretty spot-on review of Alicia Keys’ snoozy first single from her forthcoming pushed-back album The Elements Of Freedom in The Stranger; in the writeup he writes about how his sister saw the deadly serious arteeeste Keys in concert in 2001, and how she was then flogging her over-the-top cover of Prince’s “How Come U Don’t Call Me Anymore.” Well, Keys’ Prince mimickry continues on her new single, “Sleeping With A Broken Heart,” which is an even less subtle attempt to channel the Purple One. This time out she’s channeling his breathier side, and the results are certainly better than before—but they still have that sort of oppressive Seriousness As An Artist that so many of Keys’ efforts, from her piano-etude-turned-pop-tune “Fallin’” on, seem to contain. Clip after the jump.
Honestly? If I want to hear somebody who isn’t Prince trying to bring back “The Beautiful Ones,” I’ll listen to James McNew.
Alicia Keys – Sleeping With A Broken Heart [YouTube]
It’s A Hit [The Stranger]
Alicia Keys Fashions Herself As One Of The Beautiful Ones
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What’s with the spiked jeans? Also, this is as boring as all her other stuff.
@cassidy2099: Agreed, quite, quite boring. Also, she doesn’t have remotely enough mystery as a pop character to carry a song of this sort. But this comes as someone who thinks she’s criminally dull in general.
Everyone, please say hello to your 2010 Grammy Award winner for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance.
They may as well just rename it The Alicia Keys Award.
As someone who’s a sucker for about half of what Keys does, this single is a damned sight better than that cheap “No One” remake that was supposed to be the leadoff single. It’s no “You Don’t Know My Name” or “Fallin’” or Mister Man,” but few things she does are.
This also sort of sounds like something that should score a post-breakup anxiety montage in a classic-period John Hughes movie, no?
@Chris Molanphy: Yea, I agree. That leadoff single was a glaring effort to make that song ride ‘No One’s success. I like the synthy sound of this single and the Prince-inspired vocals help (although they lack the true, blithe, breathiness of Prince himself)
Would you call Man’s World by James Brown a piano-etude-turned-soul-classic?
@nancy sin: No, but James Brown wasn’t heralded by every piece of press that accompanied the release of that song as The Next Great Piano Prodigy Who By The Way Is A Serious Musician So Please Pay Attention To Her Mad Skillz.
This isn’t as dullsville as some of the other stuff, but the Prince thing is just damn annoying. It was annoying when Kevin Barnes did it, it’s annoying when Alicia does it, just leave it in its own domain.