Sunday, January 10, 2010
Alicia Keys's "Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart" is the best single Prince hasn't released in years. Not only are its drums a complete, glorious riff on the drums on "The Beautiful Ones," but as my oh-so-wise husband pointed out, Keys is singing in Prince's range precisely (not the first time), and didja notice there's no bassline on this single? Prince certainly isn't the only artist to release a smash single with no bassline, but thanks to "When Doves Cry," he does kinda own that. Add in those great crash-y f/x in the chorus and that phat, fuzzy synth line, and this is the best single Keys has released since, I guess, one of her Usher collabos (either "My Boo" or the "If I Ain't Got You" remix, take your pick). Nice to hear something from her that isn't some sociopolitical polemic, and that's seriously '80s, and that's really good. This may be the first great 2010 single. (Sure, it technically came out '09, but it's impacting now.)
