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Dot Music

This is a record that will happen to you, and when it clicks, the realisation that As I Am is a genuine classic is overwhelming.

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Village Voice

As I Am--very much an album about the condition her condition is in, very much an album in the old-fashioned sense, a complete work: one you shouldn't subject to shuffle before you've given Keys's sequencing a chance to work its magic, its rising and falling arcs, its gut-punch-and-goose-bumps denouement.

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Slant Magazine

Keys isn't quite a superwoman come to save R&B from itself, but the timeless quality of As I Am is right on time.

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Spin

On her melodically powerful third studio album, she matures into the matriarch of her genre. [Dec 2007, p.120]

Billboard

The strong stories that Keys spins are complemented by deft musical arrangements that integrate more rock and pop into her enriched old-school vibe.

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Blender

The music is dizzying, even mesmerizing.

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The New York Times

As I Am radiates not just confidence but also experience. On the whole it’s her strongest effort yet.

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Entertainment Weekly

Despite Perry's penchant for bland mantras, her American Idol-ready songs best showcase Keys' husky range and position her in a mainstream light.

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Observer Music Monthly

For the most part, the lyrics are so reliant on stock phrases - 'feel your touch', 'hold me', 'shoulda known', etc--that you could read anything you like into them without them carrying any personal feeling at all. If you can listen to that fluting, fierce, clear, dirty, magnificent voice while simultaneously shutting out the banality of what it's expressing, you'll have hours of pleasure from this gorgeously melodic, curiously old-fashioned album.

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All Music Guide

And so even though As I Am is a flawed work--a little too poppy, a little too clichéd--it is also indicative of what Keys can and will do, and that she is someone, thanks to her curiosity, intelligence, and natural talent, who will be able to mature and grow for years to come

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Boston Globe

Keys's tunes sing as strongly as she does. Alas, she still relies too often on sloganeering.

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Paste Magazine

Alicia Keys’ third studio album is an exercise in tightening the screws.

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Austin Chronicle

New York City soulstresses born in January a decade apart ('71 and '80, respectively), Mary J. Blige and Alicia Keys flex their commercial empowerment in passionate opposition. Yonkers street survivor Blige and Manhattan piano prodigy Keys presently command career-high profiles with voices incapable of unfeeling line readings, though Booker T. & the MGs rather than synthetic New Jack soul should groove both ladies back to the old school, where their voices belong. Blige's desperate search for romantic stability counters Keys' full blush of new connection. Her eighth album since 1992 and first since 2005's Grammy-winning The Breakthrough, the former's Growing Pains starts unsteady, but its heart beats strong and sincere. Million-dollar opener "Work That" updates Motown for the 21st century with a rinky-dink piano figure and Blige's wigged head held high. Entanglements with Ludacris ("Grown Woman") and Usher ("Shake Down") tryst up unadvised, while the yearning "Feel Like a Woman" and its appeal to traditional sex roles feels pat. The succeeding "Stay Down" couches its pleas in experience rather than idealism, however, and "Hurt Again" promises this is the last time, obvious wishful thinking given the song's hook: bald denial. The synthetic funk of "Till the Morning" works best for more submissive bedroom confessions, backup "Roses" whiffing equally needy yet turns vulnerability into resentment ("it ain't all roses, flowers, and poses"), and eventually dominance. It's one of Growing Pain's best, another being "Fade Away," its treadmill tempo riding a straight line groove. The disc then loses steam (nagging "Talk to Me," clouded "Smoke") when it should've lost 20 of its 65 minutes but ends on strong note in "Come to Me (Peace)," a sort of ramped-down antidote to the relative anxiety of the rest of the album. As I Am, Keys' third studio release, pounds and caresses ivory, yet Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder carry equal weight with Streisand and Minelli since the singer soars from a much larger stage.

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Mojo

The follow-up to 2003's "The Diary Of Alicia Keys" has lots of confidence and volume, but less of the shades in between. [Dec 2007, p.98]

Hartford Courant

'Like You'll Never See Me Again' is a reminder, amidst the clutter of many cooks on As I Am, that perhaps Keys was best as she was, after all.

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Rolling Stone

Despite substantial input from Kerry "Krucial" Brothers, the rapper boyfriend Keys says she made wait a year to get down, the prevailing mood is reflectively soulful and the prevailing tempo mid.

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Sputnikmusic

Despite the consistency--the one area in which she's improved--it's almost certainly the weakest and most irrelevant album she's produced.

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New Musical Express

As I Am sees the piano songstress breaking free of her saccharine chains and delivering a streetwise, smoky set of real soul.

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The Guardian

Her fourth album starts well with the flashing anger of 'Go Ahead,' but only the Stax-sampling 'Where Do We Go From Here' is half as interesting.

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Q Magazine

Lacking the chutzpah of Beyonce or a signature voice to rival Mary J Blige, it's another curiously polite mix of soul and pop hip hop. [Dec 2007, p.118]

Uncut

This seems geared for maximum market penetration rather than songwriting excellence. [Jan 2008, p.91]

NOW Magazine

Without any clever arrangements or production gimmicks to rely on, Keys tries to compensate for the obvious shortcomings by oversinging each syllable in a way that would make Patti LaBelle cringe.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 53 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Dany gave it a10:
Perfect!

Jeremy E. gave it a9:
I don't know why critics don't like this album it was really good.

Jan B gave it a10:
An extremely nice album, in good way old-stylish. Listening to it gives me much pleasure.

Eve C. gave it a10:
The most soul awakening rnb album of all time.

Luis G. gave it an8:
NO ONE is a powerful song keys deliverance is better that ever mature and secure.... some misteps " superwoman" flaws a perfect album... lesson learned with john mayer is amazing... KEY TRACKS: wreckless love, the thing about you, i need you.

Gabi P. gave it a10:
"Bringin' r&b back from the hips to the heart" (and head) :)

Alexandra - gave it a9:
Very good album, I like very much songs like 'No one', 'Like you'll never see me again', 'Tell you something', 'The thing about love'...and a great voice, probably the best;)...keep doing your thing, Alicia...Succes!

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As I Am

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