The third full-length from contemporary R&B diva Alicia Keys is called AS I AM, a title that adequately reflects the album's straightforward, confessional soul-pop. Keys built her popularity making stylish, reflective, voice-&-piano music; AS I AM continues that trend between neo-soul and adult contemporary. There's only one way R&B artists grow to become legends, and it's by drenching the words they sing with feeling. The skeptical listener might have had her doubts before As I Am, but there's no mistaking it now: Alicia Keys is well on her way to sharing a category with them. This record radiates not just old-soul maturity, the kind Alicia fans say makes her modern rarity, but real soul. This album contains tracks that are both upbeat and mellowed out, just what we have come to expect from Alicia Keys. Anyone who has heard the incredible first single, “No One,” where Keys practically screams her devotion to a man that will never be matched, you realize that even when she’s pushing the limits of her vocal range she’s fully in command. What makes her music accessible is the simple stream of emotions that she writes with. Her choruses often consist of a string of three or four words, repeated with different notes and they send shivers through your body. Keys's collaborators on the album include songwriter Linda Perry, who co-wrote three of the album's tracks, and John Mayer, who twines voices with Keys on the sensual "Lesson Learned." This album probably is the most powerful R&B release of 2007.