The singer and songwriter Alicia Keys at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night.
Seated behind her piano on Wednesday night, plucking out the first few chords of “Sure Looks Good to Me," Alicia Keys finally looked at ease. For about 20 minutes she had breathlessly, and limply, worked the Madison Square Garden stage -- forcing sensuality on “You Don't Know My Name," getting lost amid her backup singers on “Teenage Love Affair." But “Sure Looks Good to Me," one of the best songs on her third and most recent album, last year's “As I Am" (J Records), began with a welcome desperation. “Life is cheap, bittersweet," she sang with a clear, melancholy exhale. “But it tastes good to me."
Unfortunately, though, when Ms. Keys approaches something like a feeling, she pulls up like a runner with a sudden hamstring injury. And so this song, which held so much promise, slowly petered out into emptiness.
There is no reason this should be the case. A spectacularly successful R&B singer, Ms. Keys is one of the ablest, most meticulous vocalists in any genre. But though she routinely nails the outlines of anguish, of infatuation, of indignation, she rarely fills them in. Her songs tell, but they rarely show.
