Alicia never loses the song’s melody, but she howls and rasps and sounds like she’s near tears. Instead, what’s concrete is the ragged, desperate tone of Alicia Key’s voice. It makes general allusions to people trying to keep a couple apart - a bit like how Akon did on “Don’t Matter” earlier that same year - but it never gets more concrete than that. “No One” is the simplest kind of love song. She sings it like she’s got something at stake. But Alicia doesn’t sing “No One” like she’s triangulating her biggest possible audience. That was her sales pitch - an old-school piano virtuoso who could entertain grandparents and little kids, someone who was fluent in the aesthetic signifiers of rap music but who would use those signifiers in service of ’70s-style smooth-soul balladry. She’s not a boundary-breaker or a livewire you always feel like you’re in safe hands with her. Alicia Keys has always been a smooth, efficient pop-music professional. But Akon wouldn’t have sung it like that. I have a pretty easy time imagining a version of “No One” from someone like Akon.
The lyrics are both heartfelt and nebulous - sentimental enough to be gloopy, nonspecific enough that just about anyone could identify with the song without stretching too hard. It’s got a bunch of little ear-candy hooks and a central melody that’s simple and identifiable enough to work as a ringtone. On paper, “No One” is simple and slight and vaguely banal. In a lot of ways, Alicia Keys’ “No One” is a perfectly adequate circa-2007 pop song. According to one of our preferred sources:
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