Here (Alicia Keys album)

Here
Studio album by Alicia Keys
Released	November 4, 2016 (2016-11-04)
Studio	Jungle City and Oven, New York
Genre	R&B soul[1] pop[2] hip hop[3]
Length	45:55
Label	RCA
Producer	Alicia Keys Mark Batson Swizz Beatz Illangelo Jimmy Napes Pharrell Williams
Alicia Keys chronology
Girl on Fire (2012) Here (2016) Alicia (2020)
Singles from Here
"In Common" Released: May 4, 2016 "Blended Family (What You Do for Love)" Released: October 7, 2016

Here (stylized as HERE) is the sixth studio album by American singer and songwriter Alicia Keys. It was released on November 4, 2016, by RCA Records.

Keys recorded the album in sessions at the New York-based Jungle City Studios and Oven Studios with producers Mark Batson, Swizz Beatz, Illangelo, Jimmy Napes, and Pharrell Williams. The singer had finished writing and recording material for the album before she found out she was pregnant in 2014, which put the record's release on hold.

Here charted at number two on the US Billboard 200 in its first week of release and became Keys' seventh album to top the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. By May 2017, it had sold 131,000 copies worldwide. Critically, the album was well received as reviewers applauded the raw and urgent quality of the music and its exploration of social struggles and African-American life.

Writing and recording[]

Keys recorded Here in sessions at Jungle City Studios and Oven Studios in New York.^[4] She spoke of the creative process for the album in an interview with Citizens of Humanity magazine:

"The music for this album was created so fast—the fastest I've ever created music before. It was like raining down every night, like storms of music was just coming out. It was crazy because I never experienced creating like that; I came in already knowing what I wanted to start to talk about. I knew the topics that I wanted to address and I knew who I wanted to assemble to help me create this very powerful sonic and lyrical journey. So everything I did was with so much intention that when the music began it made sense that it just came so fast. We did probably 30 songs in like 10 days."^[5]

Here is Keys' first album in four years, following Girl on Fire (2012). The singer said that she was not planning a hiatus, but after she finished recording material for the album, she found out she was pregnant which "put a different time spin on things";^[5] her son Genesis was born in December 2014.^[6]

Release and promotion[]

The first single from the album's standard edition, "Blended Family (What You Do for Love)", was released on October 7, 2016 with the album's pre-order.^[7] An earlier single, "In Common", had been released on May 4 and performed by Keys on the May 7 episode of the comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live;^[8] it was later included on the deluxe edition of the album.^[9] On October 9, Keys headed the concert special Here in Times Square, featuring performances of album tracks and other songs with several guest artists in New York City's Times Square. The special was broadcast by BET on November 3.^[10] Here was released the following day by RCA Records.^[11]

In the album's first week of release, it debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 and moved 50,000 album-equivalent units, of which 42,000 were pure album sales.^[12] It topped the US Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums on November 26, 2016, becoming Keys' seventh number-one album on the chart.^[13] By May 2017, the album had sold 131,000 copies worldwide.^[14]

Critical reception[]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.3/10[15]
Metacritic	76/100[16]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[4]
Consequence of Sound	B–[17]
Entertainment Weekly	B+[18]
The Guardian	[19]
The Independent	[20]
The Irish Times	[1]
NME	[21]
Pitchfork	6.5/10[22]
Rolling Stone	[23]
Vice (Expert Witness)	A–[24]

Here was met with generally positive reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 76, based on 14 reviews.^[16]

Reviewing Here for The Independent, Andy Gill praised Keys' writing and musicality, regarding it to be "grounded in a melodic appeal that’s almost magnetic."^[20] In Vice, Robert Christgau hailed the album as Keys' best record since her debut Songs in A Minor, deeming it "simultaneously raw and political", and crediting Swizz Beatz for defining "the funk her adventures in gospel grit demand, evoking Memphis thump while remaining so hip-hop that the samples stay in Nas-Wu-Tribe territory".^[24] The Wall Street Journal's Jim Fusilli credited the singer for pursuing new and less-commercial sounds without discarding her classic-soul forte,^[2] and Rolling Stone journalist Keith Harris said she exhibited more cruder R&B rather than the classical piano influences of her past work while suggesting a "hectic but coherent" atmosphere evocative of New York City, with influences from boom bap, Latin music, and 1970s soul.^[23] Entertainment Weekly writer Nolan Feeney said Keys performed with a "fire in her voice and an almost rap-like cadence", the urgency and subject matter of which made the album her "most vital release in years — and a welcome addition to 2016's rich canon of albums ... that address black life in America.^[18] Nick Levine from NME praised Keys' "looser and more youthful" approach, and appreciated that she "doesn't shy away from the personal here" while also looking outwards in explorations of social struggles.^[21] According to Ludovic Hunter-Tilney of the Financial Times, Here was animated by "politically active music" such as Sam Cooke's 1964 Civil Rights anthem "A Change Is Gonna Come", and suggested that Keys' "powerful vocals carry the memory of Lauryn Hill in her prime."^[25]

Some reviewers were less enthusiastic. Andy Kellman of AllMusic observed energy and conviction in Keys' performance, and a number of "career standouts" in "She Don't Really Care_1 Luv" and "Blended Family". He ultimately found the album's music hastily made, "hollow", and "crude", however, attributing this to "Keys' invigorated energy level and need to simply expel ideas, rather than refine them".^[4] Vanessa Okoth-Obbo from Pitchfork applauded the singer's musical experimentation and range, but found the lyrics unadventurous and objected to her "inhabiting the personae of multiple characters" at the expense of personal revelation; in Okoth-Obbo's opinion, the album "does little to further our understanding of who Keys is".^[22]

Track listing[]

Here – Standard edition^[26]

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"The Beginning (Interlude)"	Alicia Keys	Alicia Keys	1:04
2.	"The Gospel"	Keys Mark Batson Kasseem Dean Shawn Martin Robert Diggs Jason Hunter Corey Woods	Keys Batson Swizz Beatz DJ Silent Asassin	3:01
3.	"Pawn It All"	Keys Batson Dean Harold Lilly	Keys Batson Beatz	3:10
4.	"Elaine Brown (Interlude)"	Keys	Keys	0:50
5.	"Kill Your Mama"	Keys Emeli Sandé	Keys	2:40
6.	"She Don't Really Care_1 Luv"	Keys Dean Tyrone Johnson Edwin Birdsong Kamaal Fareed Ali Shaheed Muhammad William Allen Roy Ayers Walter Booker Charles Stepney DJ Silent Asassin	Keys Swizz Beatz Johnson	6:07
7.	"Elevate (Interlude)"	Keys	Keys	0:48
8.	"Illusion of Bliss"	Keys Batson Dean Lilly	Keys Batson Swizz Beatz	5:23
9.	"Blended Family (What You Do for Love)" (featuring ASAP Rocky)	Keys Latisha Hyman Dave Kuncio Rakim Mayers Brandon Aly Edie Brickell John Bush John Houser Kenneth Withrow	Keys Batson	3:31
10.	"Work on It"	Keys Pharrell Williams	Keys Williams	3:34
11.	"Cocoa Butter (Cross & Pic Interlude)"	Keys	Keys	0:59
12.	"Girl Can't Be Herself"	Keys Batson Lilly Martin	Keys Batson	2:39
13.	"You Glow (Interlude)"	Keys	Keys	0:25
14.	"More Than We Know"	Keys Hyman Batson Lilly Martin	Keys Batson	4:35
15.	"Where Do We Begin Now"	Keys Batson Lilly	Keys Batson	2:47
16.	"Holy War"	Keys Carlo Montagnese Billy Walsh	Keys Illangelo	4:22
Total length:				45:55

Here – Deluxe edition (bonus tracks)^[27][28]

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
17.	"Hallelujah"	Keys Jimmy Napes	Keys Napes	3:09
18.	"In Common"	Keys Taylor Parks Montagnese Walsh	Illangelo	3:29
Total length:				52:33

Here – Japanese version (bonus tracks)^[29]

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Producer(s)	Length
19.	"In Common" (Black Coffee Remix)	Keys Montagnese Parks Walsh	Illangelo Black Coffee	4:58
20.	"In Common" (Kaskade Remix)	Keys Montagnese Parks Walsh	Illangelo Kaskade	4:22

Track notes[]

• "The Gospel" contains a sample of "Shaolin Brew", written by Robert Diggs, Jason Hunter and Corey Woods.
• "She Don't Really Care" contains a sample of "Bonita Applebum", written by Edwin Birdsong, Kamaal Fareed, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, William Henry Allen, Roy Ayers, Walter Booker and Charles Stepney.
• "1 Luv" contains a sample of "One Love", written by Nas and Jimmy Heath.
• "Blended Family (What You Do for Love)" contains a sample of "What I Am", written by Brandon Aly, Edie Brickell, John Bush, John Houser, and Kenneth Withrow.

Personnel[]

Credits adapted from Here liner notes.^[30]

Charts[]

Release history[]

List of release dates, showing region, edition(s), format(s), label and reference.

Region	Date	Edition(s)	Format(s)	Label	Ref.
United Kingdom	November 4, 2016	Standard Deluxe	CD digital download streaming	RCA	[11]
United States					[26]

See also[]

• List of UK R&B Albums Chart number ones of 2016

References[]

External links[]

• Here at Discogs (list of releases)