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As I Am  | 
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Artist: Alicia Keys
Label: J-Records
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
Buy New: $6.94
You Save: $12.04 (63%)
New (63) Used (39) Collectible (1) from $6.55
Avg. Customer Rating:  304 reviews
Sales Rank: 82
Format: Enhanced
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 5 x 0.3
MPN: 711513
UPC: 886971151329
EAN: 0886971151329
ASIN: B000VEYJP2
Release Date: November 13, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
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| Tracks:
| • | As I Am (Intro) | | • | Go Ahead | | • | Superwoman | | • | No One | | • | Like You'll Never See Me Again | | • | Lesson Learned (featuring John Mayer) | | • | Wreckless Love | | • | The Thing About Love | | • | Teenage Love Affair | | • | I Need You | | • | Where Do We Go From Here | | • | Prelude To A Kiss | | • | Tell You Something (Nana's Reprise) | | • | Sure Looks Good To Me |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
By the time this long-awaited album saw its release date, most fans had probably read at least a couple of interviews with Alicia Keys in which she explained that first single, "No One"--a firestorm of a song clearly born of a sore heart and steeped in serious soul-searching, was about her decision to retreat from the obligations of stardom when she found out a loved one was in need of her care. The anecdote sticks not just because it explained the song so well--you can actually hear the pain, commitment, and determination in her sultry voice--but because it gets at what makes the woman behind the music so appealing. There's only one way R&B artists grow to become legends, and it's by drenching the words they sing with feeling (think Gladys Knight, Roberta Flack). The skeptical listener might have had her doubts before As I Am, but there's no mistaking it now: Alicia Keys is well on her way to sharing a category with them. This record radiates not just old-soul maturity, the kind Alicia fans say makes her modern rarity, but real soul. Vintage-leaning hooks and horns grab hold on "Where Do We Go from Here" and an assortment of other songs, but Keys can also get by just fine without them, as she proves on more pop-flavored numbers like "Lesson Learned," with John Mayer, and "Superwoman." The genres may be smearing, she seems to say, but bring them on: she won't shrink back. Her commitment is not to a single style but to what's stirring her soul. Because of it, she's moving R&B, or something like it, from the hips back to the heart. --Tammy La Gorce
Album Description
Japanese two CD pressing of the 2007 release from the R&B/Pop diva featuring a bonus CD containing four tracks: 'Waiting For Your Love', 'Hurt So Bad', 'Superwoman' (Live) and 'No One' (Curtis Lynch Reggae Remix). As I Am is Alicia's most innovative album to date, a collection of music with no boundaries. Influenced by everything from Hip Hop to Soul to Rock to Classical music, As I Am is every bit a sense of rebellion and empowerment. Features collaborations with some of the biggest hit makers in music (Linda Perry, Jack Splash, Mark Batson, Swizz Beats and Kerry Brothers) and includes the first single 'No One.'
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| Customer Reviews: Read 299 more reviews...
 Love Every Song July 24, 2008
I found that the songs on this Alicia Key's album is wonderful and clever. She is a remarkable woman with her amazing voice and inspirational piano playing. I wish I could play the piano.
I like this entire album, and I must say this is the first artist where I have said that. The lyrics are smart and catchy. Her voice is powerful and sultry. The music is right on point, not overdone at all. At times, I feel as though it touches on the sounds of the 1960's, but more modern.
My absolute favorite song..that is so hard to choose..but if I had to chose one is "I Need You". I felt this song, understood it completely, opposites need each other.
Now, I don't know if you will like this album. Honestly, I enjoyed it a lot, and really like with anyone's music, it's about your personal taste. If Alicia Keys can do no wrong in your eyes, then you may love this entire CD.
Thanks.
Amazing Singer July 21, 2008
She is a superwoman with an amazing voice and lyrics i went to her concert omg that was just the most craziest concerts ever
SICK!!!! July 15, 2008
A KEYS kills it everytime, what else can i say!! The album grows on most people after listening a few times. I'm a hardcore fan so loved it from the 1st listen!!
Alicia Keys- Maybe Not Her Best, But Miles Ahead of the Rest(of the singers that is...) July 15, 2008
This review is long overdue as I have owned Alicia Keys' third album, As I Am, since the first day it came out last November. Over those months I have had time to take it in with plenty of time and see where it stands with the rest of her work including seeing her live in concert when she came to Minneapolis back in April. Where I stand now after so many listens is that I still do not know where to rank it in her three albums. Maybe second behind Diary, maybe even a slight third behind her debut with Songs In A Minor. I don't know. What I do know is that in the last year or so, they are few albums that are on the level of her As I Am CD (few that DO come to mind: Keyshia Cole's Just Like You, Jill Scott's The Real Thing, Chrisette Michele's I Am). She can take risks, stand out on a plank with a leap of faith by changing her style or angle with her musical approach somewhat and still come out better than most. And that is what she shows and does here with As I Am.
If you are a music fan, you have the image of Alicia and her piano combining together to make the music we all know and that we have all LOVED. Here with this go-round, she changed it up some on us. Instead of getting closer with her and HER piano, she decided to make music that focused on her. That is her, the person, instead of her the artist. You can see that with the stories she tells, although she has always been a open artist. But she gets a bit more personal here. The big thing that strikes me though is that there wasn't as many songs that had that distinct piano sound and feel to them. That gives way to some funky and new-age (or neo-soul) R&B tracks. And it seems that her and her producers made more of an effort to shift and make her voice the focus of the music instead of the piano being the co-star along with her. This perhaps correlates with getting to know her as the person she is. She may not have as powerful a voice as say MJB, Keyshia or a Jill but it is STILL a very beautiful one indeed and can lift spirits all the same!
Still you do get the tracks that Alicia Keys is known for by playing great piano tunes and putting the right words to them, moreso at the end of the album. Those aren't even the ones that standout to me. Tracks that jump off the CD were songs like Superwoman, an ode to all the women taking on problems head on especially those single mothers and saying, "Yes I can beat whatever comes my way, no matter what you throw at me Life." Others that were on that level were Go Ahead, Teenage Love Affair (the current single out now that makes you get nostagic if you had one of those teenage loves when you were younger and that has the video that pays homage to Spike Lee's groundbreaking School Daze; Nice touch, Alicia!), No One (of course, singing that song with such soul from within, though it got played too much on radio for me), Wreckless Love, Prelude To A Kiss, and Tell You Something.
The real showstopper on this whole CD though, is track 5- Like You'll Never See Me Again. If you had to take one song off this entire album and place it in Alicia Keys capsule for someone 100-150 years from now to listen to it, this is it! Just the whole theme of cherishing every moment, every touch, every hug and hold, every kiss that you have with your baby (even the bad times) cause you never know when it could be all over and that person could be gone (whether it would be through break-up or their life ending). Wow! Something we don't think about often cause we take things for granted, but makes us think twice and be grateful of what we have with certain people when we do think of it. This song does that as it just makes you stop in your tracks and ponder this. So it makes sense why me and my girl made this our song (may be corny or cheesy to still hear of couples having 'a song', but hey it works for us) and why my cousin chose this as one of the songs to play for a memorial dedicated to her lost newborn just recently (just doesn't have to be for couples, just for loved ones period). Such an emotional moment that was. But yes, that song is just beautifully written and well put together. If I was one of those people that bought an album just for one song, this song would be reason enough to buy it. And the video told the story just as well as her words with her and Common and them going through problems and realizing it is not that big when she sees him laid up in the hospital clinging to life after a motorbike accident. Apologies for continuing on about just this one song, but if you haven't gotten this album by now that should tell you the power and impact that this song would have on you.
Though this album has it flaws with a couple of tracks that are pretty good but just don't hit a homerun like some others (i.e. I Need You or Sure Looks Good To Me) and the one guest artist on the album, John Mayer, just kind of sings part of the hook and you wished he had contributed a verse for a duet with two great artists (though the song is still great- Lesson Learned), the weight of the ones totally clear the fence tip the scales and carry this album. You get to see Alicia blossom into total womanhood, evolve as an artist, share some great stories and give you great music all rolled in one. As I said before, I still do not know where to rank it with her first two albums and it is hard for me to fathom that she is thinking of retiring in the next couple of years as I heard on the radio a week or so ago (R&B and the world would sure enough be missing something special, and that word maybe overused at times, but Alicia is nothing short of special) which means only one or two more gems from her before she is gone. I will tell you that this is a DEFINITE must-own and you yourself can figure out where to put it on the totem pole in her career!
Great Album! July 10, 2008
Liked the album generally, thoug not all songs will perhaps make the cut for greatness. To my ears, "Like you'll never see me again", "Lesson learned", and "Sure looks good to me" stood out.
Alicia has a great voice, a wonderful style of rendition, a genuine soulfulness, and an infectious level of energy (and yet her songs seem soothing).
Look forward to hearing more of her music in the years ahead.
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