It was so bad in the 80s that I think a lot of artists would have to re-record their 80s catalogue in order to redeem their legacies. I heard Gloria Estefan the other day doing a live version of "Words Get In The Way", a truly great song, but if you listen to the original studio version it's hard to get past the lame synths. There are a lot of great songs from that time that are ruined by the collective insanity of the time. It's funny cos Prince spoke about it in 1985, saying that "producers have ruined music" by focusing on sounds over music. If you actually read his full comments they could just as easily apply to the situation today.

I really don't like her and John Mayers song.

Which one is that?

Lessoned Learned. He's not in the song much.

I wasn't feeling that one

Was there any song that you did like?

I think I'll question anyone that likes Lessons Learned taste.

Yes, I posted it here http://prince.org/msg/8/251390

I like I Need You

Like You'll Never See Me Again too Purple Rain, but I can tolerate it

Go Ahead is decent

Tell You Something is decent

Thing About Love is better live

Superwoman is too much of a sample
[Edited 11/7/07 21:17pm]

Thanks. I think we have similar taste because just from hearing the clip of I Need You I could tell I would like it. Superwoman annoys me and it sounds like she sampled it from a sitcome. I also like That's The Thing About Love(only heard it live) and Go Head(only heard it live aswell).

In my opinion I Need You is the best song on the album

Superwoman samples an old 70's or 60's songs I can't name right now. It's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't get it out. I haven't heard Go Ahead live yet
[Edited 11/7/07 21:39pm]

"Alicia Keys new song sucks"

That can pretty much be said for the whole CD.
Although I give her props for bringing back an old school technique of starting out mid-tempo and speeding up the song in "Thing About Love", most of the CD is mediocre. Her arrangements are BORING. She should have taken the drum loop in the beginning of "I Need You" and used it on "Go Ahead" and discarded "I Need You" completely so she'd have at least one song with a tiny bit of bite to it. I think I'm starting to feel about Alicia the way Vainandy feels about Whitney Houston only without the hate. Alicia is possibly one of the unfunkiest artists in the R&B genre. She music seems sterile on CD. She needs to stop those rap producers from making her drum beats. [b]It sounds like she has a rap producer lay down the drum track and she comes in and plays piano over it and someone else comes in and arranges around it. If that's what she's doing, that doesn't work for her. Her tracks are lame and lifeless. I tried. I honestly tried. I had higher hopes for Alicia but her music is not growing. [/b]

The rap producer you speak of is her partner Kerry Brothers. I haven't heard the album, but even from the clips, you just said exactly what I was thinking. The music is too hip hop influenced, and the drum patterns takes away from it. He actually started out as a local hip hop producer and started doing rnb through Alicia. I applaud you for listening to it and nailing my issue.

you only mean her music partner, right?
she doesn't like dick

The rap producer you speak of is her partner Kerry Brothers. I haven't heard the album, but even from the clips, you just said exactly what I was thinking. The music is too hip hop influenced, and the drum patterns takes away from it. He actually started out as a local hip hop producer and started doing rnb through Alicia. I applaud you for listening to it and nailing my issue.