When it comes to describing pop artists, few adjectival phrases are as off-putting as "classically trained," especially when it's used repeatedly in the course of a five-year PR buildup for a teen prodigy. But classically trained Alicia Keys' long-awaited debut album, "Songs in A Minor," is neither as annoyingly precocious nor overburdened by technique as one might expect. Her occasional teasing contributions to movie soundtracks ("Men in Black," "Shaft") have shown that the 20-year-old singer-songwriter knows what makes for good R&B radio.
Her handlers have tried to sell her as a throwback to classic soul, which means she joins an already overcrowded field of neotraditionalists that includes Erykah Badu, Angie Stone and Jill Scott. But what I hear, especially on those songs where Keys' strong piano playing is featured, is the kind of Top 40 gospel-pop pioneered by the late Laura Nyro, a classically trained teen prodigy from a different age.