Here | ||||
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Studio album by Alicia Keys | ||||
Released | November 4, 2016 | |||
Recorded | 2014–2016 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 45:55 | |||
Label | RCA | |||
Producer |
Various
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Alicia Keys chronology | ||||
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Singles from Here | ||||
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Professional ratings | |
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Aggregate scores | |
Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 7.3/10 |
Metacritic | 76/100 |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | |
Entertainment Weekly | B+ |
Financial Times | |
The Guardian | |
The Independent | |
The Irish Times | |
NME | |
Pitchfork | 6.5/10 |
Rolling Stone | |
Vice | A– |
Here is the sixth studio album by American singer and songwriter Alicia Keys. It was released on November 4, 2016, by RCA Records. The first single from the standard edition, "Blended Family (What You Do for Love)", was released on October 7, 2016. "In Common" and "Hallelujah" were featured on the deluxe edition of the album.
Keys told Humanity magazine that "the music for this album was created so fast—the fastest I've ever created music before. It was like raining down every night, like storms of music was just coming out. It was crazy because I never experienced creating like that; I came in already knowing what I wanted to start to talk about. I knew the topics that I wanted to address and I knew who I wanted to assemble to help me create this very powerful sonic and lyrical journey. So everything I did was with so much intention that when the music began it made sense that it just came so fast. We did probably 30 songs in like 10 days."
Here is Keys' first album in four years, following Girl on Fire (2012). Keys said that she was not planning a hiatus, but after she finished recording material for the album, she found out she was pregnant which "put a different time spin on things." Her son Genesis was born in December 2014.
Here received generally positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 76, based on 14 reviews.Robert Christgau hailed it as Keys' best record since 2001's Songs in A Minor and credited Swizz Beats for defining "the funk her adventures in gospel grit demand, evoking Memphis thump while remaining so hip-hop that the samples stay in Nas-Wu-Tribe territory".The Wall Street Journal's Jim Fusilli notes that the album "at its highest peaks is a powerful work of contemporary pop by an already established musician who is still determined to grow."Entertainment Weekly writer Nolan Feeney felt that "the combination of her subject matter and her urgent delivery makes Here [Keys's] most vital release in years — and a welcome addition to 2016’s rich canon of albums from Beyoncé, Solange, Frank Ocean, Common, and Dev Hynes that address black life in America. Keith Harris, writing for Rolling Stone, remarked that "Keys' eighth album downplays her classical training in favor of a grittier R&B edge." He described Here as "the sounds New Yorkers overhear blasting from passing cars and seeping from pedestrian earbuds, reimagined as a hectic but coherent symphony." Nick Levine from NME found that "we’ve known since she debuted with "Fallin'" in 2001 that Alicia Keys can write songs that sound anthemic. But with Here, it feels as though she’s dug deep to produce a set of genuine, heartfelt and relevant anthems. Ludovic Hunter-Tilney wrote for Financial Times that Here was animated by "politically active music" such as Sam Cooke's 1964 Civil Rights anthem "A Change Is Gonna Come", while noting that her "powerful vocals carry the memory of Lauryn Hill in her prime."