Alicia Keys is truly a Girl on Fire. The star’s brand new album is sitting on top of the Billboard album charts this week. It debuted at number one with album sales of over 159 000 copies and this latest accolade adds to her already impressive run on Billboard. She now has five number one albums to her name. Big up Ms. Keys.

I’ve been listening to the album in my car and when I have some down time and I really am enjoying it. When the news of the album was announced, Keys promised a “new me” and that’s exactly what she is. She’s a mother, a wife. She looks amazing and from what I’ve seen in recent interviews and appearances, she’s just content, confident and loving life. I must admit though, when I heard the first single I was a bit worried about what else was to come. That isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy the single, I was going on the reactions that I had encountered from friends and fellow AK fans. They weren’t loving it as much as I thought. So it made me wonder if the album would be similar and therefore how it would fare in the market.

Well when I went through to the album listening session recently, I was pleasantly surprised. Her voice is raw, stripped down to the basics and it sounds beautiful. She has some magical tracks in the form of Fire We Make, which features Maxwell. When It’s All Over
and Listen To Your Heart are my other favourites off the album too. You’ll hear her signature sound i.e. the oh Ms. Keys on piano and you’ll also hear her little man, Egypt too.

On this album she’s worked with husband and super producer, Swizz Beatz. She’s also enlisted the writing duties of John Legend, Emeli Sandi, Babyface and Nicki Minaj.  Track listing below:

1. De Novo Adagio (Intro)
2. Brand New Me
3. When It’s All Over
4. Listen To Your Heart
5. New Day
6. Girl On Fire (Inferno Version) f. Nicki Minaj
7. Fire We Make f. Maxwell
8. Tears Always Win
9. Not Even The King
10. That’s When I Knew
11. Limitedless
12. One Thing
13. 101

If forced to rate the album out of ten, I’m going to go with a cozy 8. Grab yourself a copy on the iTunes store in America, Europe… and SA!! Boom