I like Alicia Keys. A lot. You can’t hold that against me. You might recall my review of AK’s last single, Like You’ll Never See Me Again. Well, she has done it again with Teenage Love Affair.
Alicia needs to write more songs like this. It’s light and breezy, totally unlike like some of her other tracks (Karma comes to mind). For a little while, I have been worried that Alicia was incapable of writing a song without devastating heartbreak somewhere along the way.
Now, I could break it down for you AS style (beat, video, content, and vocals) - but that would really just be a waste of time here. We can take it for granted that: A Keys can sing, her songs have great thematic content, and she has an excellent production team. That leaves one thing: the video.
AK claims that the video was inspired by School Daze. As I noted in this week’s podcast, I’m not really familiar with most of the Spike Lee canon - so that doesn’t mean much to me. But, after watching this video I may have to see it.
The video is basically a backdrop for Alicia Keys to play dress-up. That said, I have not seen A Keys look this good since that collabo she did with Usher. The big gold earrings? Awesome. The black mermaid dress? Amazing. And it doesn’t stop there - a little pink lipstick and Ms. Keys goes from classically elegant to seductive and sultry. Outside of a photoshoot - this is arguably the best that Alicia has ever looked onscreen. (Sidenote, is it just me, or does A Keys look a little like Sasha Grey with the blue eyeshadow in the scenes where she’s on her bed?)
The big thing that distresses me about A Keys is telephones and side conversations. This video continues Alicia’s ridiculous habit of featuring phone conversations in her videos. It is totally superfluous and serves no purpose. This theme is present in no less than 4 of her videos.
The Bottom Line: Alicia Keys does pop music and looks good doing it.
I DO LOVE THIS VIDEOOOOO!