Finally, we have some news on the new Alicia Keys album! It looks like the release date was pushed again, but today we have the video for the first single off of As I Am. The video was directed by Justin Francis and it debuted on BET today. According to some sources, the album’s release is now set for November 13th. If this is true, she will miss her chance to duke it out with Jay-Z on November 6th. Or maybe he will postpone his too so they can stay together….

Here is the brand new Alicia Keys video for “No One”:

I think the video is just ok, but I love the song. She looks gorgeous as ever, of course, but I don’t know, it’s kinda boring. I like the parts on piano in the rain, and I really like the ending when she’s got all her homies around her. The song on the other hand: I love the pace, the real laid-back tempo and sparse music that let’s her voice reign. I am definitely looking forward to this album, especially now that I know Robbie Shakespeare is involved! Oooh La LA!

Alicia Keys and Robbie Shakespeare In The Oven

I read a great article about the new album and Keys’ grandma-house-converted-to-recording-studio she calls “The Oven.” The article is by Jon Pareles for the New York Times, and it goes a little something like this:

At midnight on a Monday in late July, the day was far from over for Alicia Keys. That morning the Jamaican bassist and producer Robbie Shakespeare, from the duo Sly and Robbie, had flown in from Miami for a session at the Oven: a house on Long Island that Ms. Keys and her producing partner, Kerry (Krucial) Brothers, have converted into a complex of recording and mixing studios. She spent the afternoon rehearsing with her band in Weehawken, N.J., then headed back to the Oven for a late-night mixing session.

“I love my spot,” she said proudly as she offered a visitor a tour, wearing wraparound sunglasses and a “Born to Be Wild” T-shirt. “It looks like Grandma’s house.” From the outside it did. But beyond its parlor the Oven was a warren of clean, well-equipped studios on three floors. Photos of Nina Simone, Janis Joplin, Bob Marley and other old-school figures presided from the walls.

It’s where she made her next album, “As I Am” (J Records), working at her own pace. Due for release on Nov. 13, “As I Am” will be her first studio album since she released “The Diary of Alicia Keys” in 2003, and Ms. Keys has been describing it as “rebellious” at every opportunity. “I just was really adamant about doing things that were not expected,” she said. While some of its songs reaffirm her connection to 1960s and ’70s soul, others lean closer to rock - from the Beatles to U2 - than she has before. The album was about 10 days from being finished, and well into the wee hours people were busy with last-minute mixing and mastering. Manny Marroquin, who was mixing the album’s first single, “No One,” told Ms. Keys he had just gotten a no-pressure-but-pressure call from her A&R contact at J Records. “He was, like, ‘Do your thing,’ ” Mr. Marroquin reported, imitating the tone of the record-company man. ” ‘I’ve just got to turn the song in by Wednesday, and I’m not going to get in the way, but — ‘ ” Ms. Keys interrupted him. “Back up,” she said. “I don�t like to hear all that. It’ll be in when it’s in. It’s there when it’s right, and that’s when it’s there.”

You can read the article in full on Alicia Keys Official Fan Club website.

Alicia Keys Links

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Alicia Keys Official Fan Club

Pages about Alicia Keys ~ Robbie Shakespeare ~ Sly & Robbie