The new Alicia Keys Open Mic iPhone app ($1.99) is pretty fun. I’m going to take a gamble and say it’s probably even more enjoyable if you’re a huge Alicia Keys fan, and it has the potential to reach new levels if you add to it via the iTunes App Store. The app in its most basic form comes with two of Keys’ songs: “Doesn’t Mean Anything” and “Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart.” I happen to have an embarrassing soft spot for the latter so, I’ll admit, it was pretty fun to belt out the words with and without Alicia.
Once you choose a song, and the level of difficulty you want to try the song out in—easy, medium, or hard—the lyrics scroll across the bottom of the screen. An added feature that makes this karaoke-style app stellar — and not just average — is that along with the lyrics come lines that show you where your pitch should be. Not to mention an arrow indicating if you should be singing higher or lower. The better your singing, the more points you can earn (which is where the difficulty levels factor in, in case you were wondering). You can adjust the tracks to play with or without vocals. Listening to the instrumental-only version allows you a rare opportunity you might not want to miss: getting to sing Alicia Keys songs solo, in the privacy of your own bedroom, rather than on the bustling karaoke floor.
