Idolator

Nearly every week, we round up the all-important, all-summarizing last sentences of the biggest new-music reviews. Today's entry is MySpace hack victim Alicia Keys' As I Am, which hits shelves tomorrow:

• "Ms. Keys comes closest to transparency on the tunes she wrote with Linda Perry, including 'Thing About Love,' the one with the line about shining. The likely anthem of 'As I Am' is 'Superwoman,' an exhortation sure to appear soon in a montage near you. It's not the album's best piece of music (not even close), but it extends an effective invitation. As Ms. Keys has surely learned by now, no one can afford to shine alone." [NYT]
• "Perry goes for the melodrama in the overwrought "Thing About Love" and "Sure Looks Good to Me," while Brothers turns 'No One' into a ham-fisted Bob Marley impersonation, and 'Superwoman' into a self-glorifying gospel parody. 'I am superwoman,' Keys proclaims. 'Yes, you are,' the chorus answers. John Mayer, the King of Bland, lives up to his billing on the inert 'Lesson Learned,' which he cowrote and coproduced. Only the frisky nostalgia of 'Wreckless Love' and 'Teenage Love Affair' suits Keys well. On these tracks, which tighten up the loose-fitting exuberance of '70s R&B just enough, the singer sounds at home, her voice radiating joy. It's another reminder of promise that has gone largely unfulfilled." [Chicago Tribune]
• "As I Am overflows with such clichés, many courtesy of Linda Perry (Christina Aguilera, Pink), who co-wrote three songs with Keys. 'Sure Looks Good to Me' includes this trite barrage: 'Don't rain/On my parade/Life's too short/To waste one day/I'm gonna risk it all.' But despite Perry's penchant for bland mantras, her American Idol-ready songs best showcase Keys' husky range and position her in a mainstream light. In particular, 'The Thing About Love' begins as a melancholy R&B lament and rolls into pure pop-rock uplift, with Keys belting, 'It's time for me to shine.' Songs like this and the empowering 'Superwoman' have more than a pinch of Aguilera's Perry-penned chart-topper 'Beautiful' in their DNA. So, understandably, there's less room for ODB." [EW]