You have to admire Alicia Keys' commitment to her street-nice vision. In the year Ciara grew up, Rihanna left the islands and Jill Scott explored the joy of sex, the twenty-six-year-old's third studio album envisions a hip-hop generation ready for its own Roberta Flack. 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. The pair's collaborations peak with two power ballads anchored by heavy keyboard hooks: the watch-your-step "Go Ahead" and the unconditional "No One." And while proven hitmakers Linda Perry and John Mayer add little, Plantlife's relatively obscure Jack Splash chips in on the album's two liveliest, loveliest tracks: "Teenage Love Affair," in which a street-nice girl stops at "third base," and "Wreckless Love," which goes "crazy" without specifying a single body part.

“Youth Knows No Pain”

“Like on 'Youth Knows No Pain' — we are the ones that should demonstrate, because we can take it,” Likke Li said. “We can pierce ourselves, take Ecstasy, dance all night and still go to work at our McDonald's jobs.” Despite the hedonistic sentiment in the song, the Swedish singer also admitted in hindsight her youth had repercussions. “I remember when I was 18-19 and feeling that I know it all,” Li said. “I always feel that I know it all. But that song is about realizing you don’t, and reflecting, ‘Boy, if I only knew what would follow.’”