#277 Alicia Keys, 'The Diary of Alicia Keys' (2003)

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Another record that was released during my time as a CD store employee. During this period I was in my if-it-doesn’t-have-distorted-guitars-it’s-just-not-good-enough phase. I sold hundreds of copies of this album to people and very likely heard it many times in store too, but I ignored it because it wasn’t “my genre.” Today I finally listened to ‘The Diary Of Alicia Keys,’ an album whose cover was so incredibly familiar to me, yet its music completely unknown to me. Almost unknown. First & second singles, ‘You Don’t Know My Name’ and ‘If I Ain’t Got You’ were radio hits but hearing them in context of the record makes so much more sense. I remember ‘Karma,’ the first actual song on the record too. This song has so much soul, so much power, so much groove. It could be a Stevie Wonder song. First two things I noticed – Keys’s piano playing is superb and the drums by the great Steve Jordan, a session drummer who has played on hundreds of recordings, and is also a member of the John Mayer Trio. The following track is ‘If I Was Your Woman / Walk On By,’ a cover of the Gladys Knight & the Pips song, built on the foundations of Isaac Hayes’s version of ‘Walk On By’ (#373). This album continues to give, track after track. I did myself a disservice by dismissing it before giving it a chance.

The album has sold 8 million copies to date and earned Keys three Grammy Awards. It features contributions from Timbaland, Kanye West, John Legend, Hugh McCracken and many others. Keys, herself, contributed to multiple instruments and produced most of the record. She’s a true talent and I’m sorry to myself that it took my all these years to come around to her.

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