...Little Broken Hearts
When Norah Jones began covering Wilco’s “Jesus, Etc.” live, it was a signpost: just as “America’s greatest band” has transformed from alternative country heroes to renowned rock experimentalists, so too has the singer/songwriter morphed from piano-based acoustic jazz/folk crooner to guitar-playing alternative pop vocalist. On her fifth album, she cowrote songs with Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton, who produced the sessions at his Los Angeles studio. Having first worked together on *Rome* (his and Daniele Luppi’s ode to Italian cinematic music), Jones and Burton recorded all the vocal and instrumental tracks themselves before bringing in supplemental musicians like drummer Joey Waronker (Beck, Air) and Sonus Quartet. From the hypnotically unsettling “Good Morning” to the plaintive single “Happy Pills” and the blissfully hazy “All a Dream,” *Little Broken Hearts* is a new type of chillout album for an artist previously known for her warm, comforting sounds.
Norah Jones is the most fascinating boring musician working today. When Jones’ debut album Come Away With Me became a multiplatinum, Grammy-winning sensation, the moment represented something genuinely welcome: the triumph of the simple over the processed and the packaged. And Jones has continued to sell remarkably…
It's not like she took her Grammys and ran with 'em: Ever since she took over the pop charts back in 2002 with her smooth…
One of the many frustrating things about Norah Jones is what appears to be a total unwillingness to push herself beyond her lyrical and vocal comfort zones.
<p>Demure Norah Jones wields an iron fist inside a kid glove on her new album, writes <strong>Kitty Empire</strong></p>
Norah Jones has made a sneaky transition from dinner party backdrop to David Lynch soundtrack with Little Broken Hearts, writes Helen Brown.