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ALICIA KEYS - MTV UNPLUGGED (LP)

ALICIA KEYS/MTV UNPLUGGED (LP)

Forget that it's awfully hard to call this live recording Unplugged. Unlike the early installments of the MTV series, which focused on a performer accompanied only with an acoustic guitar, resulting in unsurprisingly simple affairs, Alicia Keys' Unplugged is big, splashy, and immodest — even if her guitarist is playing acoustic and she plays a piano, not a synth, the extra vocalists, horn section, strings, and full rhythm section complete with electric bass makes this anything but 'unplugged.' But that doesn't really matter, since this is presented and marketed as a live album more than an acoustic record, and, as a live album, it's excellent. Certainly, Keys and her 16 supporting musicians are professionals and they deliver tight, polished grooves, giving her plenty of space to improv and vamp, which is in contrast to her controlled studio albums. But that's not the only way Unplugged differs from Keys' other two albums. This, more than either Songs in A Minor or The Diary, illustrates why Alicia Keys fits into the post-hip-hop soul world: she places groove and feel above the song.

   Intro Alicia's Prayer (Acappella) 
   Karma 
   Heartburn 
   A Woman's Worth (Live) 
   Unbreakable 
   How Come You Don't Call Me 
   If I Was Your Woman 
   If I Ain't Got You 
   Every Little Bit Hurts 
   Streets Of New York 
   Wild Horses (Feat. Adam Levine) 
   Diary 
   You Don't Know My Name 
   Stolen Moments 
   Fallin' 
   Love It Or Leave It Alone (Feat. Mos Def & Common) / Welcome To Jamrock (Feat. Damian Marley, Mos Def, Common & Friends)