Alicia Keys's Diary: clever title, vapid lyrics

If your last name was "keys," wouldn't you be tempted to put old-fashioned brass keys and piano keys all over the cover of your latest album?

Having composed music and lyrics since she was fourteen, Alicia Keys presumably has the creativity to come up with a sophisticated album. Alas, just as her cover art is preoccupied with displaying the various interpretations of her surname, the majority of songs on Keys's new The Diary of Alicia Keys seem too busy reiterating the same basic themes of her last album to try anything new.

The unrequited love of the hit "Fallin'" reappears here in songs like "Dragon Days" and "You Don't Know My Name." Even the classic "A Woman's Worth" from Keys' last album, Songs in A Minor, has been utterly cheapened by Diary's "When You Really Love Someone." In both, Keys defines a "real" partner, giving parallel criteria for men and women. The two songs present a proud message about taking equal responsibility in a relationship, but one is sufficient to convey this point.

Other songs, such as "So Simple," are cheap without even being repetitive. The couplet "Now it's hardly simple/ it's just simply hard" is one a talented singer/songwriter could easily dribble in her sleep.

Keys's lyrical laziness in these songs is especially surprising when compared to the clever lyrics in others. The chorus of "Dragon Days" makes use of mythical reptile imagery and the homophone, "draggin'", to parallel the agony of "a lady in waiting" for her unrequited love with the dragon's-breath fire of her desire. The medieval references throughout the song are as thrilling in their content as in their literary value. While blues lyrics are known for their plays on words, one does not expect a modern R&B artist to express her passion as a "dungeon" awaiting the prescribed knight in shining armor. "Heartburn," which compares lust to those gut-wrenching tacos you just can't stop scarfing down, is also clever. If the rest of the album had a little more spit-fire and a little less dribble, this princess might be saved.

Lyrical gripes aside, Keys is clearly a gifted musician. Her seductively impetuous tone combines with smoothness and rich timbre to transcend the multiple styles she employs over the course of the album. The arrangements, particularly in the clich?©d "Karma," are orchestral and precise, but Keys brings in back-up singers common to R&B. The resulting blend is impressively natural.

"Diary," a song that coaxes a lover to divulge his secrets to a tender and trustworthy ear, opens with a piano riff so delicate that the keys might as well be attached to heartstrings. When Kerry Brothers, Jr. echoes Keys's vow of secrecy, the chemistry between their voices imbues the entire song with a tender sexuality that can be described only as wildly feminine, which is Alicia's patent effect. This song is almost worth buying the album.

Overall, Alicia Keys's diary is worth cracking. Expect these songs to express a lot of frustration, but be prepared to appreciate the ebb and flow of blues music as well. Keys, like the word keys, can come in many forms at once.