When Alicia Keys performed in Brighton last year she was riding on the tidal wave of success of her Grammy-winning debut album Songs In A Minor.

This time, as the headline act on the last day of Radio 1's week of live concerts in the city, she's on the verge of releasing her sophomore album The Diary Of Alicia Keys.

Not since Lauryn Hill conquered the world with her magnificent debut The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill in 1999 has an artist's second album been so eagerly anticipated.

Unfortunately, Hill's follow-up effort flopped spectacularly but if the new songs that Keys performed are anything to go by, it seems she's on the way to another spectacular success.

Trevor Nelson put the crowd in the mood with his blend of new and classic soul tunes. The Honeyclub is a great party venue but it doesn't have the best sound system for this kind of gig.

There were a few technical glitches but those were quickly brushed aside by the consummately professional New Yorker who kept a cool head and played to her audience.

Keys looked really radiant - even though her outfit had a bit of an Eighties feel about it - and sounded even better.

What she lacks in vocal talent she more than makes up for in the power and integrity of her music.

Her three songs, The Streets of New York, Diary and the newly-released single You Don't Know My Name hark back to the classic soul ballads of the Seventies and Eighties.

In Diary and You Don't Know My Name, she sings about love and passion quite powerfully. You Don't Know My Name, a song about a woman who decides to approach a man she has been admiring for a long time, is reminiscent of the diva Millie Jackson while The Streets Of New York sounds like something that could easily come from the songbook of Keys' idol Stevie Wonder.

If all the songs on The Diary Of Alicia Keys are that strong, her second album will prove that far from being a fluke, she is, indeed, one of music's finest talents.

Review by Franka Philip, features@theargus.co.uk