‘AS I AM’

‘AS I AM’

Alicia Keys (J Records)

Grade: B+

In the six years since she made her recording debut, Alicia Keys has sold millions of records, won an armful of Grammys, and racked up a gaggle of hits. Yet for all of her accomplishments, Keys has yet to deliver the one thing that matters most — a truly great album.

Her third studio album, “As I Am,” still isn’t a classic — but it’s tantalizingly close. Once again, the singer-songwriter comes up with some brilliant music. But what’s more important is that even the songs that fail to live up to that high standard are, for the most part, pretty memorable on their own, resulting in a near-great, cohesive record.

Working once again with partner Kerry Krucial, along with other collaborators such as producer-songwriter Linda Perry and John Mayer, the songs on “As I Am” home in on Keys’ specialty — magical love ballads and soulful songs that burn slow but retain their fire throughout. One song that’s an example of the latter: the mournful, yet ultimately hopeful “Lesson Learned,” about picking up the pieces after heartbreak. You can hear the ache in her stirring voice as she sings: “I was burned, but I call it a lesson learned.”

On the passionate, sexy “Wreckless Love,” one of the CD’s best tracks, she gives perhaps her best vocal performance, alternating between a sexy near-whisper to full-out tempestuous growl as the horns and drums reach a crescendo in the background.

The song that will leave you spellbound, though, is the exquisite “Like You’ll Never See Me Again.” The dreamy, melodic groove will draw you in, but it’s Keys’ sensual voice leaves you rapt as she begs, “Every time you hold me, hold me like it’s the last time, every time you kiss me, kiss me like you’ll never see me again.” People will be dedicating this one to their significant others for decades to come.

No other track matches that song’s power, but there are other gems, including the rollicking hit “No One,” which recalls a Bob Marley groove, and “Tell You Something,” a rousing song that has Keys once again singing about seizing the moment to express love.

— Nekesa Mumbi Moody, Associated Press

‘HEAVEN, HEARTACHE AND THE POWER OF LOVE’

Trisha Yearwood (Big Machine)

Grade: A

Even 16 years ago, as a young adult starting her career, Trisha Yearwood was exceptional at delivering songs that probed the tangled emotions of adult relationships. On her 12th album, “Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love,” she shows how she’s grown even more effective with experience.

Her alto can soar with the strongest and loudest, but typical to this Georgia singer, what makes her so powerful is how she uses her tender upper range and her growling lower register. As one of Nashville’s best singers in front of an orchestra or solo piano, she breathes layers of emotion into ballads as well-conceived as “The Dreaming Fields” and “Help Me.” Similarly, few singers rock with as much ferociousness as Yearwood does on the title song or cop a groove with as much feistiness as on “Drown Me.”

Yearwood has never been the most prolific or hardest-touring artist, and she’s slowed down more since her 2005 marriage to singer Garth Brooks. To her credit, she continues to make every album an event worth celebrating — as “Heaven, Heartache and the Power of Love” truly is.

— Michael McCall, Associated Press

‘RED CARPET MASSACRE’

Duran Duran (Epic)

Grade: B-

The idea of putting ’80s new wavers Duran Duran and current super-producer Timbaland together seemed like a good one on paper, but the result doesn’t quite live up to the possibilities.

The problem with “Red Carpet Massacre” is that Duran Duran gives in to the Timbaland sound a little too easily and way too often.

When they’re on equal footing, on the groove-filled “Skin Divers,” for example, things turn out pretty well. Taking singer Simon LeBon’s distinctive vocals and lyrics and John Taylor’s big bass lines and mixing them with Timbaland’s rhymes and rhythms is a good fit. And when the “Rio” boys hold on to their old sound, as in the first single “Falling Down,” they do just fine. But when the scales tip too far in Timbaland’s favor, the Durans lose too much of what makes them special.

They are potential Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, not One Republic, or even Nelly Furtado.

They have worked with great producers before — notably Nile Rodgers who handled “The Reflex” and “Notorious” — and held their own. If they did the same on “Red Carpet Massacre,” maybe they could have managed similarly grand results.

— Glenn Gamboa, Long Island Newsday

‘SYSTEM’

Seal (Warner Brothers/Elektra/Atlantic)

Grade: B

“System,” Seal’s first studio album in four years, finds the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter heading back to his “Crazy” dance-rock territory with a sweeping yet cohesive 11-song set.

Maybe his supermodel wife Heidi Klum has injected a bit of catwalk attitude in Seal’s return to his roots: “System” is much more happy-go-lucky than complex, dramatic tunes such as “Kiss From A Rose” and “Love’s Divine.”

Stuart Price (Madonna’s “Confessions On a Dance Floor”) produced the album, and it shows. All but two tracks toward the end would be right at home in a pulsing nightclub. The anthemic “If It’s In My Mind, It’s On My Face” allows Seal to belt out lines like “And if I could fly, I’d spread my wings,” his voice gleefully saturated with reverb. There are two versions of the infectious first single, “Amazing” — the jump-up, Erasure-style standard and a swelling, trance-synth remix — that sound different enough to remain fresh.

Other highlights include a rock and dance combination on the melancholy “Loaded” (”Oh, little girl/What have we done?”) and “System,” a nice juxtaposition of punchy acoustic guitars overtop a lively beat.

Price’s influence is most obvious on “The Right Life,” whose synth build-up sounds yanked straight from “Confessions,” but its attempt to address societal woes (”On the streets/Tryin’ to find a better way”) is heavy-handed.

While the bulk of “System” falls short of the timeless blockbuster “Crazy” (and what wouldn’t, really?), the songs’ richness blossoms with each listen.

Pod Picks: “If It’s In My Mind, It’s On My Face”; “Amazing,” “System.”

— Michael Hamersly, Miami Herald

‘A PLACE TO LAND’

Little Big Town (Equity)

Grade: B

Echoing the best elements of the ’70s Southern California vocal harmony contingent, coed country group Little Big Town is poised to please a broad base with a remarkable third album, “A Place to Land.”

On the surface, the sublime ballad “That’s Where I’ll Be” borrows the bass line, country-pop instrumentation and tempo from the Eagles’ hit “Lyin’ Eyes.” While its lyric is more conventional, its scrumptious melody and vocal arrangement are peerless. “Fury,” a catchy rocker closing the CD, comes perilously close to duplicating “Too Many Hands,” another highlight from the Eagles’ made-in-Miami “One of These Nights” LP. The harmony-laden pop/rocker “Fine Line” and the “Landslide”-like acoustic guitar ballad, “To Know Love,” a Valentine for band member Phillip Sweet’s wife, might have you thinking you’ve put on Fleetwood Mac’s 1975 “White Album” by mistake.

Yet this band transcends the charge of copying because their richly layered vocal delivery is fresh and the songwriting is timeless. With nary a dud track, “A Place to Land” represents a sizable sonic leap forward for Little Big Town. The production is full-bodied, warm, detailed and natural. The lavish packaging recalls the days of gatefold LP sleeves. Lyrically, LBT stretches into social commentary (the mesmerizing “Evangeline” discusses emotional abuse). Musically, “Land” is a country album rock fans can love and a rock album country audiences can champion.

Had “A Place to Land” been released in 1975 it would have been huge. Today, with filler-laden, market-researched CDs, “Land” stands out even more. Call it a contemporary classic.

— Howard Cohen, Miami Herald