Joni Mitchell and Her Ablum "Blue"

There is no doubt that Joni Mitchell can sing. She utilizes her vocals to a capacity that is truly astounding. Her very down to earth sound bleeds through in her 1971 released album “Blue”. Her songs sound very natural yet at times I feel as if she has almost has too many vocal fluctuations! It illustrates the wide range of her voice and her ability to move up and down in tones so fluidly that it sounds like a separate instrument. She has such control over her voice it is astounding! She is able to do things that are truly amazing. She can hit the highest pitched notes and then go to straight low vibrato in the very next measure. While her music all together didn’t appeal to me at first, as I continued to listen, I gained a greater appreciation of what she is able to do with her vocal instrument. While she doesn’t have a ton of different instruments, she still effectively fills the space with her voice.

I think my initial pushback to Mitchell’s music was that her voice (which heavily dominated her songs) sounds very choral and almost too pure. It is almost out of place and is more stunning than anything that she was able to be so successful with such a contrasting sound. Her knack of utilizing a single instrument in the background or simplistic countermelodies simply accentuates the power and depth of her voice. For having polio, she also plays the piano and acoustic guitar pretty well! She is able to supplement her powerful voice with merely these simple countermelodies. This artist is pretty impressive because she doesn’t rely on anybody or anything else to supplement her vocals. The fact is that she doesn’t need to. Even though I would probably not listen to this type of music on a normal basis, I can appreciate the talent that has gone into Mitchell’s songs. Other bands and artists throughout the musical decades have heavily relied on other band members to make harmonies as well as complex series of instruments to help tell their story, but Mitchell steps over this boundary and made significant headway for female vocalists.

Okay, I think that was enough raving about her vocals for one blog. Another reason why her music began to appeal to me more was that the album somewhat snuck up on me. At first I thought of her early songs as rather blasé. By the fourth and fifth song on the album, she was throwing in more complex musical qualities and aspect that built upon each other. I felt that this developed her as an artist and made me slowly see what she was capable of performing. While a lot of artists are capable of making musical arcs in their songs (well, at least of the past that is), Joni Mitchell created a musical arc throughout her entire album. I uncovered this as I continued listening. The first three songs simply have her voice and a basic instrument (such as the acoustic or the piano). Slowly, she spiced up her music with simplistic beats and layered on some harmonies in later songs until the end of the album strikes the listener and all they can do is look back and wonder what they just experienced. While part of this was probably by design, I also think that her voice was able to connect all of the songs into one unifying album. It didn’t sound like a jumbled conglomeration of music, but rather, one elegant piece of work.

Unfortunately, I can’t post the entire album up on this blog so that you can fully experience it. I’ll do my best though. Below are three songs from the album that are from the beginning and middle of the album so that you can see how the songs developed. “All I Want” is a generally calm song in relation to later pieces. “Blue” was so powerful that I couldn’t take notes on it because it was just so full of emotion, power, and passion that it required my full attention. Lastly, “California” exposes a more hip side of Mitchell’s music. Enjoy:

Why Are Celebs Freaks?

The title question of this blog is a very intriguing one that intertwines deeply with music throughout the decades. We see celebrities and popular artists as a shocking contrast to everyday life. They seem so outrageous, yet we as consumers seem to love it. The average listener/person seems to view celebrities in a light that enables them to do whatever they want.

At the heart, I don’t think that these celebrities are strange however. I don’t think Lady Gaga woke up one day and decided that she was going to throw on a meat dress. I think these artists are very aware of what sells. They are simply efficient at their business, which is basically being music/media salesmen. They observe their customers and learn that we as consumers desire this irrational behavior. Thus, in order to match their competition, the celebrities increase in their “weird” factor (maybe even subconsciously).

Now another question that comes into play here is why consumers like this very strange and uncomfortable behavior that some celebrities and artists have adopted. The celebs are simply responding to the consumer. So, what about androgyny or a meat dress appeals to the masses? I believe the major factor that comes into play is that it is shocking. This deranged behavior which seems so outrageous to the “normal” individual is like a verbal slap in the face. When the artists do these things, their actions are almost screaming at the consumer, saying “PAY ATTENTION TO ME”. With so much media and a constant influx of information/media, each piece of music will drown in the autotuned sea of nonsense unless they have something that makes them stand out.

Under this large umbrella of outrageous behavior, lies androgyny in music. I hate androgyny, especially as a method of selling music or product. I find it creepy and utterly strange when artists perform while acting like the opposite gender. While everyone is free to do whatever they please, I still feel fairly uncomfortable. This feeling applies towards outrageous behavior of all celebrities. I hate the fact that they use their behavior to sell instead of basing their music off of TALENT. What is even worse is when the artists ARE talented but mold into society. Personally, the whole matter is rather upsetting.

In order to analyze this concept further, we can look to the wild career of David Bowie. Bowie developed into a very intriguing character. I use the word intriguing very loosely. In his album, Hunky Dory, he was a seemingly normal guy of the 70s. Even though he had excessively long hair, flamboyant clothing, and bell-bottom jeans, he was still an average guy. He was successful in his music career and had some pretty light sounding, yet talented songs released on the album, including “Oh! You Pretty Things” and “Changes”. His music was kind of appealing as it took on a pop-like sound without a very heavy tone. His harmonies were full of energy and overall he sounded good. Check him out below:

Then, androgyny hit. With the course of a single album, Bowie was capable of making me lose significant respect for him. This is not simply based off the music in which he generated. The album “Ziggy Stardust” has a lot of peaks musically. But the concept and character that he developed freaks me out and prevents me from truly appreciating the music. One of his songs, “Five Years” has a pretty sick drum beat at the beginning. I definitely feel a different aspect of his music bleeding through that adds to the eeriness of the tone. With the use of simple effects along with a slight vocal change, I feel that his music is much creepier in a way. Because of performances that I’ve seen and just knowing that at this point in his career he was blurring the gender lines, it makes me a little sick in the stomach and prevents me from listening without biases. He has a good sound and I don’t think he needed to rely on androgyny to succeed. And frankly, he’s just plain creepy looking. Sorry to creep you out:

I view androgyny as a crutch. I don’t think that true and good artists need to change themselves just to satisfy their audience. They should be able to create good music without this façade. And personally, it’s just plain creepy. You saw David Bowie. What was he thinking when he woke up in the morning? He proved in his early years that he could create music, so I don’t see why consumers would want to ask for anymore despite to live vicariously through an obnoxious parallel.

Radio: A Necessity or a Cherished Relic of the Past?

Radio has been a constant presence in society for decades. It has enabled the dissemination of a wealth of music and information to occur worldwide. When it was a revolutionary technology, the radio became the centerpiece of a family room. Although I didn’t live through this era of history, I still realize the significance that the radio brought to music and pop culture in general.

In a world where television and the internet didn’t exist, the only method of mass communication was the radio. It served purposes that transcended merely music and took on a form of information. As technology progressed, however, people became more interested in utilizing this technology for easy listening of music.

As this technology has bombarded the stage, radio has almost fallen by the wayside. Radio has always been there and it would be freaky to think that it would magically disappear. The truth is: that is where our society is taking us with our music listening habits. As compared to online listening and instant downloading of songs, radio seems archaic. Why should I have to find a channel that is playing music that I like when I can just flip to a Pandora station in seconds? Why should I spend countless hours sitting through horrid songs before I can get to the music I actually enjoy? Why should I suffer through so many commercial breaks that I can’t even breathe? This attitude has taken hold of a majority of people of today’s society.

Radio used to be a venue where the newest, coolest hits would make their debut to the public. If you heard it on the radio, you had to give it the time of day. While I may be slightly generalizing here, the radio usually just spits out a lot of the music that has already been crammed down our throats from hours of listening to Pandora or Spotify. I used to be able to tolerate simple radio listening but now stations like KissFM are almost unbearable at times. Nothing against KissFM (I love the Bobby Bones morning show) but radio in general seems to highlight only the most processed pieces of music that have already proven their success. When they find something that works, they just keep playing it and playing it until we, as listeners, feel like taking a bat to the radio.

The reason why the Internet has solved these problems for a lot of listeners is that WE are now in control. We are not at the mercy of the radio station operators. Rather, we can pick and choose what we like and what we don’t. With iTunes we can make our own playlist that is composed of only what we enjoy. While you may have to pay for it, many believe this trade-off is worth it. Radio, on the other hand, has failed to evolve with time (as can only be expected).

Other reasons why I don’t like the radio as much anymore is because they dominate their playtime with commercials. Out of the three main stations I like, I would be that at least two at any one time would be playing commercials if I got up out of my chair and turned on my radio (which won’t be happening). Even though commercials are creeping into technology such as Pandora, it is more tolerable and less frequent.

Lastly, radio has a way of manipulating their listeners into believing they enjoy certain music and bombarding them all the time with those select songs. While overplayed songs are an entirely different debate, I think that the radio is a MAJOR part of this process. When a new song is released on the radio, all the listeners are amazed that new music is actually being played so we all flock towards it instantaneously. It’s almost as if the radio people torture us with songs until they get monotonous and blasé so that we will flood towards anything new they release. Although that’s just a hypothesis, I still dislike the fact that radio shoves the same boring music at us 24/7.

Do I think that in a decade or so the radio will become completely obsolete? Maybe not but I can tell you that in that time it will have a significantly less impact on the world. I think it will become similar to the record player. Sad to say but as music forever progresses and evolves, the days of radio are soon to be forgotten.

Remixes VS Copyright: The Ultimate Battle

Quick Note to Mr. A: Since my blogs for this week had already been completed, you had said the below blog will count towards the following week (Week of 1/20 – 1/26).

Before I had watched this intriguing documentary on remixes and copyright infringement, I had relatively standard views on the matter. I didn’t really see past the surface level of the arguments. I have always been a believer in copyright and protection to ALL kinds of intellectual property. It is a very important right that I believe we have. My problem was that I had never seen the shades in between. If I create a piece of music or art, I don’t want anybody taking what is rightfully mine and claiming it as their own.

When I started delving into this documentary, I saw the shades of gray between. It is a challenging subject because I believe there is no drop-dead line that determines what is protected and what is public domain. Corporations are currently taking advantage over the otherwise good (in theory) system we have in place. They have taken so much control of previous released content and placed such a focus on ownership rights that it seems that recreating our culture (as in remixing songs) is becoming less and less possible. As I said before, I firmly believe in people’s right to intellectual property, but I think these large corporations are bending the rules towards their favor so that they can profit off of others creativity. Now, let’s ponder that point for a second. They are utilizing copyright laws (which are set in place to PROTECT people’s creativity) to suppress people’s creativity.

The reason why remixes are not entirely bad is because a lot of times, the new product looks or sounds nothing like the old version of the song or other piece of culture. The documentary highlights an interesting “artist”. I put artist in quotation marks because some might question his artistic ability. The artist is named Girl Talk. He is a very interesting biomedical worker by day and a rocker remixer by night. He has taken remixing to a stage that I have never been exposed to before and it was actually quite exciting and thrilling to hear his new type of music. He is among a rising genre that has come about as a result of rising technologies that enable our creative juices. With the simple press of a key, he is able to take beats and melodies and countermelodies and harmonies from anywhere in the world and mash it all together to form one wild song. This is where music is headed as seen in the rise in popularity of computer-based music such as dubstep and I believe that the music industry, in a failed attempt to keep up, is trying desperately to pull this creativity back down using the law. They don’t want these “heretics” to gain too much of an influence and greatly alter the industry; that would prevent them from making money, you know.

I see it like this. I’m writing this blog right now. A little later I’ll upload it to my blog and you’ll be reading it (hopefully). Say that what I’m writing in this blog is extremely interesting to you so you decide to copy the whole 800+ word thing and post it as your OWN blog! If I caught wind, I probably would be a little mad that you stole my creativity because I spent good time to create this piece. But this blog is composed of a variety of words in it, right? If you looked at my blog and said to yourself, “Whoa, I really like how he used the term ‘rocker remixer’ in the third paragraph! I’m gonna use that!” If you use the words in a different way to create a totally different blog or post or tweet, I could care less. There are only so many words in the English language! Just because you used two of my words, doesn’t mean I think you stole my ideas.

It’s the same with music! I watched as Girl Talk mashed together fractions of a second of beat from one song with fractions of a second of a melody from across the world. The creativity does not lie in the blip of a sound that comes from that miniscule part of the song. The creativity lies in the person who has taken this miniscule piece of nothing and transformed it into a head-banging, enjoyable piece of art. The fact that a random guy with a computer can just make songs is truly astounding.

I think if copyright laws should protect anyone, it should be fixed to protect artists like Girl Talk who are simply creating their own music. Girl Talk, like others, has changed the songs so much to a point that they sound like a new product. While this gets into a shady area of qualification, copyright laws should not be used by these corporations to hinder progress towards an innovative future in music.

Neil Young

What’s sad is that before today I had never listened to a single Neil Young song. Well, actually, it might not have been the worst thing to miss out on. Neil Young seems to be one of those artists that you either absolutely love or absolutely hate. He reminds me a lot of Bob Dylan in the fact that he is capable of writing songs better than anyone of his time but can’t seem to hit a note that resonates with me! When I ask around about people’s opinions about Neil Young I get very mixed reviews. One person says that they “LOVE” Neil Young while another simply groans in disgust.

Personally, I’m kind of on the fence with Neil Young as an artist. After listening to his album “After the Gold Rush” released in 1970, I think I have gotten a pretty good sense as to what his music is all about. There are certain aspects of his music that are very polished but his solo lead vocals act as a road block for me. I simply cannot get over the shrillness or whiny sound that he emits through his music. It’s somewhat disappointing to me to be honest. Young’s music is somewhat like a Thanksgiving Dinner gone awry. No matter how good the surrounding dishes are (I’m thinking stuffing, gravy, potatoes, cranberries… yum!), if the turkey is bad, the dinner won’t live up to expectation.

Similarly, Neil Young expertly creates songs. Throughout all of his songs, he is able to make the background music tell his story along with the lyrical poem that he creates. The constant presence of “down-to-earth” instruments such as the acoustic guitar and the piano enable his songs to have a much more clean and simplistic sound. This starkly contrasts other heavier sounding rock at the time such as Sabbath! The instrumentals that back up this famous singer are polished and do not overpower the songs; simply serve them.

Additionally, I am amazed at Neil Young’s ability to compose literature. No, no, not a play or a novel! He is so talented at songwriting that I consider it literature! While this may seem rather hyperbolic, I think he deserves this recognition. This is another reason why I believe he resembles (and was probably influenced by) Bob Dylan. While his vocals are not exactly up to par, he compensates by telling a story through his music. The instrumentals themselves could support the music that he creates, but the fact that on top of that he makes music that make a listener enter deeper thought is truly astounding. Usually I don’t rave this much about lyrics but when I read the below stanza of “Don’t Let It Bring You Down” I knew this man had some writing talent:

Old man lying
by the side of the road
With the lorries rolling by,
Blue moon sinking
from the weight of the load
And the buildings scrape the sky,
Cold wind ripping
down the alley at dawn
And the morning paper flies,
Dead man lying
by the side of the road
With the daylight in his eyes.

If you heard a slight rumble in the background, that was the sound of my mind being blown by the depth of those lyrics!

Now let’s get to the grudges. I’m just going to address the problems head-on. Neil Young should have seriously considered giving up singing. But then again what do I know? I’m just a guy behind a computer screen while he attained an amazingly successful career in music! Despite this, his voice sounds horrid in a majority of his songs. Whenever he tried singing in a higher octave, he resembled the sound I would imagine Elmo’s voice to be if he were on drugs. At times in the album, I cringed because I couldn’t stand the way that his lead vocals completely wrecked the great countermelodies! The way that his weak voice works the songs, I felt like I was in a Mr. Rodgers episode or on Sesame Street.

I noticed that the two songs that I mostly enjoyed were the two that he sung at a lower octave and didn’t do much vocal fluctuations. This enabled his areas of strength to shine through in my opinion. The two best songs on the album for me were “Southern Man” and “Oh Lonesome Me”. When there are harmonies in the songs, they nullify the horrid sound of Young’s voice and enable the cooler electric guitar strums, piano, and beats take over. While “Oh Lonesome Me” has a much more mellow tone and I think it prevented Neil Young from vocally wrecking it. I don’t like when he tries too hard to hit the high notes. The electric guitar strums in the background spice up an otherwise soft sound driven by a slow hi hat and long drawn out harmonica. Both of these songs are pretty funky and generally good, though. Whether you love him or hate him, it cannot be ignored that Neil Young was a very strong artist of his time.

OneRepublic

While the name sounded unfamiliar at first, OneRepublic is a very dynamic band that has actually been on the music scene for a long time. Despite the fact that they seemed foreign to me when their latest single “Feel Again” was released, I quickly realized that I knew a multitude of their past songs already. This wasn’t because they weren’t memorable; it’s just that I have a track record of not remembering artist names that come on the radio.

To my surprise, their musical ability was responsible for churning out several hits including “Apologize” and “Stop and Stare”; both of which I can sing in my head instantly after reading their titles. Their older hits showed their capacity to reach a level of catchiness that makes their music sink into the listener’s heads. While their sound hasn’t changed dramatically from their first releases to their present-day songs, they provide the radio and listener with this rising, new, and fresh sound of alternative rock. OneRepublic gives off a down-to-earth yet hip vibe. They don’t stick with the basics like The Lumineers but rather successfully combine talented (and relatively soft toned) vocals with electronic-influenced instrumentals. They seem like an older version of Imagine Dragons in the fact that they present fresh ideas but aren’t quite as satisfying as some of Imagine Dragons’ hits.

I think this can be lent to the fact that OneRepublic has progressed relatively slowly as a band. They seem to release a song/album and bask in the glory for as long as possible. After being on the music scene for a total of 10-11 years now, they have only officially released two albums! While their third album is coming out shortly, this still seems like a ridiculously long time. Compared to the Beatles’ lightning speed of album release, this seems humorous at best. I believe this lacking has made their sound not change very much throughout their career.

Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, either. Their sound started off satisfactory and has simply maintained. While it hasn’t done anything spectacular for me, I’m very interested to see where they go in their third album. I have looked towards their two newly released singles from the album in order to potentially get a better glimpse at where their music is going. And I like what I see (or hear, I guess).

They have the passion and heart of some of the greater artists such as Alicia Keys, which in my opinion goes a long way. Through their songs they explore issues that the listener can relate to. A lot of times this circles primarily around love but there’s nothing wrong with that. Love is a great concept for music to be based on because of its universality. I think where they slightly falter is in the mediocrity of their lyrics. Because they are a slightly more pop-style band as compared to other alternative rock groups, I think the simplicity plague has influenced them. Despite this fact, however, their songs travel at a brisk pace and I never feel myself growing old as I listen to the music they generate. To make up for their slight deficiency in lyrics, they have a full song-arc accompanied with energetic instrumental breaks at times. Overall, their music has pretty high levels of energy.

I know that I’ve been a little hard on this band but they are really really talented! Despite my above criticism, they mesh extremely well. Their perfect blend of harmonies, strong lead vocals, supportive instrumentals, and sick beats drives their music to new limits that ultimately livens up the radio.  For example, I can’t stop listening to one of their latest hits “Feel Again”. Starting out relatively soft and slow, it quickly builds up utilizing low drums and electronic sounds. The vocals shine through the low drive of the song, however. They maintain a steady and consistent aura of pure energy throughout the entirety of the song which keeps it interesting. Check it out:

Okay, this next song was just released about a week ago. “If I Lose Myself” takes on a completely different personality as “Feel Again”. With a funky beat at the beginning, it transitions smoothly into softer rock sound. Almost ballad-like vocals fuse with a soft guitar strums and hi-hat. This one of their songs that really stands out to me because of its variety compared to past music by OneRepublic. Check it out for yourself. I highly recommend this:

What Is Rock?

Before I jump right back into our little timeline through music history, I’d like to espouse my ideas on what exactly is the genre referred to as “rock”. Until we establish this basic principle, I think it’s very hard to categorize any music. Rock is such a broad category of music that it encompasses a lot of variety. It has seen a pathway similar to that of plate tectonics in that its subgenres are slowly shifting away from one another in a very divergent manner.

Because of this, as we move through time, the ability to pinpoint a specific piece of music and point-blankly state that it is some type of music (like rock) gets harder and harder to do. Currently, I would say it is almost impossible to clearly identify something as one, and only one, type of music. While we, as humans, like to classify things into neat little packages so our minds can understand, interpret and share with others, we tend to mix things together until we get something we like. I see people’s view of music similar to, say, a chocolate covered strawberry. Someone, one day, decided that they liked chocolate and they liked strawberries. So why not make a strawberry COVERED in chocolate? This constant mixing and interconnectedness also applies towards the ART we consume.

So when someone asks me if a single piece of music is considered “rock”, I hesitate to answer decisively. Maybe if we’re talking about the early rock of the fifties, it would be a different story. But for the most part, the hesitation is a result of the fact that not ONE song is any ONE genre. Each individual piece of music is unique and is heavily influenced by everything that the artist has consumed up until that point in their lives. I don’t believe that anything can be so neatly classified and packaged up into one box as humans so desperately desire to do. I think because there are so many aspects of music, every piece contains a little bit of metal, country, rap, classic rock, classical, jazz etc. While certain qualities may be more pronounced than others, everything is very similar.

Now you’re probably wondering, “Well thanks for all that blah nonsense but you still didn’t answer the question of what rock is!” Well, because music is constantly influenced and changing as generations and time pass, rock has evolved in order to serve its audience. The whole idea that rock is the sound of rebellion makes sense because this has no boundaries and merely fuels the constant evolution into an unknown frontier of musical consumption. I think of rock as more of an idea rather than a specific sound of music. Rock is the idea that causes people to stand up and protest. Rock is the idea that molds the attitude of the younger generation and rock is the idea that GETS molded by the younger generation. Rock is a highly circumstantial concept and what may have been considered “rock” to the people of the seventies may not clearly match the “rock” of the nineties.

To put this whole blog rather bluntly: Rock is a very broad classification of music that is forever changing as time passes and interests change. To confine any one piece of art to a specific music genre is also not appreciating the true nature of ALL aspects of the art. Only the individual can decide whether they believe a certain piece of music serves that rebellious need for the idea of rock because rock is not the electric guitar. Rock is not a wild vocalist. Rock is not an insane drum solo. All these things make up rock and roll but the genre itself goes far beyond in its meaning approaching a constantly changing idea of rebellion.

And that, is rock.

Alicia Keys

There’s no arguing that Alicia Keys deserves a coveted spot on this blog. She has proven herself as a very diverse and talented artist through a very successful career. In the past, Keys really hasn’t been on my radar for music but her resurgence with her latest album “Girl on Fire” has especially caught my attention.

 “Girl on Fire” topped the charts around the world after its release and contains some pretty astounding singles. I would classify the album as mainly R&B but it definitely has a wide variety of songs and sounds. I was surprised by the album length as it seemed VERY long. A majority of her songs are four minutes or longer! When listening to each of the songs individually, however, it doesn’t seem slow or laborious to listen to. Everything seems to flow nicely and her musical ability enables her to keep the listener’s attention for that elongated amount of time. Few artists are capable of doing this and need to compensate it with flashy unsubstantial sounds that don’t add anything to the musical arc or message.

At heart, Alicia Keys is a vocalist. She has no band or instrumental ability to speak of. Therefore, her songs revolve around her extremely talented and polished vocals. I personally feel that this enables her songs to have more depth than songs by bands because she only has to focus on the vocal dynamic of the song. There are thousands of guitarists and drummers and bassists, but what makes a song come together is the musical talent of the vocalist. A great example of this in my opinion is comparing The Stones and The Beatles. While this might be a controversial example and you may disagree with it, I think it identifies an interesting point. The Stones and The Beatles both had extremely talented instrumentalists. When it came to the vocals (especially in the early days of both bands) the Stones lacked seriously compared to the Beatles. For this reason, their songs seemed less organized and the melody seemed not to maintain as effectively. While I kind of went off on a tangent there, my point is that Alicia Keys’ developed voice is the key to her massive success as a musician.

Alicia Keys is also very versatile. Because her voice is so polished, she can sing in a variety of different genres and alter her sound ever so slightly to give a completely different vibe while still maintaining an effective message in her songs. As you’ll see later in this blog, she has composed “Girl on Fire” with a variety of R&B, ballads, and even some hip-hop! I think the diversity is another aspect of her music that appeals to the masses. She isn’t one-sided.

Keys also highly values lyrical depth. Hallelujah! Finally a modern artist that has developed music that is empowering and deep in its meaning. While others have come close, none have been as powerful as Alicia Keys. With several of the songs on her latest album, I was so moved that I had to literally stop typing notes just to absorb the pure passion and soul from the music. The combination of her brilliant lyrics and her passionate voice makes her a very well rounded artist.

Now it’s time for me to prove the grandiose claims from above. The first song I’d like to highlight is the hit single and title song of the album, “Girl on Fire”. This song has a driving beat accompanied with a simple piano countermelody. Despite the atrocious decision to feature Nicki Minaj, Keys makes up for this lapse in judgment with her impressive vocals. She really can belt out a great note and this raw vocal talent enables the song to be driven forward. Keys ultimately brings vocals to the forefront of the listeners’ mind.

The next single is “Brand New Me”. This softer piano ballad sharply contrasts the sheer power of the previous song but preserves the same passion and meaning. The soft tone represents to me a feeling of rediscovery and I feel very connected to the music.

Just for fun, I’m going to throw in one of her hip-hop songs from the album. “New Day” has a funky and catchy beat and vibe with modern instrumentals and an awesome beat. This spices up the album and once again proves Keys’ versatility. Even this hip-hop song though is chock full of meaning!