Alicia Keys MTV Unplugged

This is definately one of my favourite albums ever because it covers all her best material from her albums but a new amazing set up. All her original songs have been reworked with nothing sounding the same as her studio albums. But the best bit about this cd is probably Alicia herself as she has so much energy and her voice is incredible. It is raw and refined at the same time and the emotion is so strong. This is shown most clearly in How Come You Don't Call and the brilliant new Every Little Bit Hurts. Don't be fooled into thinking that most of the stuff on this album has been heard before because it hasn't.

My top 5 tracks are:

1. How Come You Don't Call Me (such a brilliant performance)

2. Unbreakble (Great new song written by her and Kanye west)

3. Every Little Bit Hurts (So much soul)

4. Wild Horses (Beautiful)

5. Diary (she and her backing singer are truly amazing)

One of my favourite albums I own that never bores me when ever i listen to it!

I am not particulaly an Alicia fan, I have heard the obvious songs in the radio etc and recognised her talent but wouldn't have gone out and bought it. However, on coming across this album I was gobsmacked. From the first note it is a highly polished production. The whole band is tight, particularly the percussion and bass who drive every song. The upbeat arrangements are excellent, however the collaborations are not so great. Alicia doesn't miss a beat and this is proof that she is going to be regarded among the best R'nB / soul musicians in the world. I genuinely think this is the best live album of all time and in fact have listened to it about 100 times since discovering it a month ago.

Alicia Keys has such a remarkable voice and her stage presence is that of a real soul legend (she'll get there)After owning all of her previous work and seeing her live in 2004 and 2005 i knew that the Unplugged set wasn't gonna dissapoint me in the slightest and i wasn't wrong.
There's a few surprises and a few old favourites most notably are the covers of "Wild Horses" which has been covered plenty of times in the past Keys teams up with Adam Levine of Marron 5 and does a emotional duet that is truly heartwrenching one of the greatest remakes i've heard. The other remake is the classive "Every Little Bit Hurts" which was recorded first by soul singer Brenda Holloway and she does it justice and was the second single the video was like a tribute to Motown a great throwback video. Among the many highlights of this concert a few spring to mind the sheer rawness of "If I Aint Got You" is just breathtaking as well as one of the newer songs "Unbreakable" which celebrates black love it was the song that promoted the album and did quite well in the states. The version of "Fallin'" is that from the Ali soundtrack a more melodic version of the orginal and very haunting i felt "Heartburn" was the main song that was out of place it was too jumpy the 7 minute opus of "Streets of New York [City Life]" is wonderful Alicia gives us a nice poem then goes into the song lovely instrumentation.The last track "Love It or Leave It Alone/Welcome To Jamrock" plays the set out nicely joining Keys is Common,Mos Def & Reggae artist Damian Marley, Keys sings the hook on the latter which surprised me and it work very well. "Love It Or Leave It Alone" is just fantastic Mos Def and Common are just some of the greatest rappers alive and they sound actually good unlike alot of rappers.

Top 5
1.Wild Horses
2.A Woman's Worth
3.Diary
4.If I Aint Got You
5.Fallin'/Love It Or Leave It Alone...medley/Every Little Bit Hurts

Alicia Keys is one of the true talents that's keeping that revival r&b style alive i hope she'll be around for the next 40 years like her predecessors Lena Horne,Nina Simone,Roberta Flack...etc
Also, The Unplugged DVD of the concert is available too which is just as great with some cool special features
Buy This!