The Diary of Alicia Keys
The album received positive reviews from critics. Of The Diary of Alicia Keys, Josh Tyrangiel of Time said that Keys "made half a great record. The first six songs are models of how to make nostalgic music that is not anti-present... The second half of Diary sags." However, he added that it was "obvious" that subsequent albums would "be worth hearing." Giving the album four stars, People magazine said that "Keys honors R&B's golden age with an old soul far beyond her 23 years." Billboard magazine felt that "the songstress handily tops Songs in A Minor" and "channels spirits of '60s and '70s soul for Diary." Rolling Stone called the album "an assured, adult statement, steeped in the complicated love life and musical dreams of an ambitious young woman", comparing Keys to Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin. ABC News said "If I Ain't Got You" is "a stunner of a ballad on which Keys' sound and vocal inflection recalled another one of Davis' famous proteges: Whitney Houston."