Many young female singers court the tweenie market by exaggerating their girlish charms, but twenty-year-old Alicia Keys sings for adults. Showing a maturity beyond her years, this New York newcomer's largely self-produced debut suggests down-home R&B contemporaries like Jill Scott as well as yesteryear's soul sophisticates. She's not at the level of her heroes yet: Keys penned much of Songs in A Minor in high school, and the singing is more mature than the self-consciously retro arrangements and sometimes thin sonics. Still, there's no denying the serious early Aretha vibe permeating the current hit "Fallin' " or the authority with which Keys rips into Prince's beloved B-side ballad, "How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore." Jermaine Dupri's typically slinky "Girlfriend" steers her into contemporary hip-hop mode, while elsewhere, complex jazz harmonies and organic instrumentation complement her commanding presence. Keys is a discovery of pop impresario Clive Davis, and his orchestrating hand sometimes weighs heavily over this album; but Keys is never upstaged, and we're only beginning to see the depth of her talent.

“He Will Break Your Heart”

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."