Norah Jones - Not Too Late
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Free Music Notes for Not Too Late
Free Music Review: Without fear or favor
Hit: 5 Stars
I guess I'm in the lunatic fringe of fans who have listened to this album about 25 times now in the few weeks since it was released, especially during long plane trips back and forth to a distant land. And I wore out Norah's first two albums, too. This one is definitely a change and is not as easy to listen to as the innocence of Come Away With Me and the welcoming beauty of Just Like Home. But the new one is not inconsistent....the new record allows you to listen back to the previous two, and see this one coming.
In the same way that Steely Dan was always mistaken for smooth jazz elevator music, Norah Jones is often mistaken for mellow love music perfect for Valentine's Day. Just as with Steely Dan, there's some degree of truth there: Norah's voice can be soothing, enveloping and loving, like a lullaby. She has an incredibly beautiful voice -- maybe not for all tastes, but definitely mine. She's got the gift to express things a lot of us feel.
On this album, though, she steps forward as a songwriter, with more than just her voice invested in these songs. The message is hers, too, along with Lee Alexander, who co-wrote several tunes, produced the album and is at least an equal partner in creating her sound. I think it's time that he gets some creds for building just the right timbre, tone and depth to set her voice like a jewel in the middle. The instrumentation never detracts or competes. They are definitely helped by all those excellent musicians who've been playing together and with Norah and Lee for a years now. But their musical partnership has been the anchor of it all.
I actually found Feels Like Home to be a pretty riveting album emotionally...far from being just mellow background lovey-dovey music. "Sunrise" to me is full of double meanings and depicts this rather difficult relationship situation, and the record goes on from there, all the way to ambiguous "I Don't Miss You at All." So, here is this one starting off with "Wish I Could," again about a pretty complex emotional situation where the singer can't really reveal all of what she's feeling to "Annie," standing in the door. Who is Annie? Door to what? And what was the "path he found"?
Anyway, the album goes on from there with I think not a weak song in the bunch. Lots of different kinds of songs, some just playful, others serious. I hope they bring a string quartet and trombones when they perform this stuff live, though!
As for the "political" songs, Sinkin Soon is funny as hell, a drunken tune with a great trombone solo! And Election Day I took as being about, well, election day: not so much Bush specifically or anyone else specifically. She captures her impressions of that time, and again, like a lot of her songs, it has multiple dimensions. There are many ways to interpret what she's got here. I don't think people who support Bush or who are trying to hang in there and see this Iraq situation out to a successful end should be offended. To me, like Springsteen's The Rising, these are a poet/writer/songwriter's impressions, not blunderbuss obvious political rants like you get from other bands.
So, I would say for Norah's fans beyond the lunatic fringe, don't dismiss this album too quickly. At least a few of the songs are going to grab you right away (like the beautiful "Wake Me Up"), and the rest seem to find their way in time. Plus, wow: what rich musical influences are apparent in what Norah and Lee have here...something we haven't heard since maybe The Band's great music. Dashes of Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Randy Newman, Lucinda Williams all mixed together in the great American tradition. And, ah: natural, real instruments and real good musicians playing them! Techno takes a holiday. Thank you!
Free Music Review: Norah Jones; just a little different but still essentially the same
Hit: 5 Stars
Following the success of Norah Jones's first two albums, 2001's "Come Away With Me" and 2004's "Feels Like Home", (which sold around 17 million and 10 million copies respectively), I'm sure I'm not the only fan who's been wondering whether that level of success can be sustained and what she would do next, i.e. would she stick to her established formula and risk being savaged by the critics for "playing safe", being "dull and boring" and inducing slumber ("sleepytime pop" is how one newspaper critic recently described her music) or would she branch out and try something new, and risk alienating settled and comfortable (not to mention lazy) fans like me?
The answer to the first question remains to be seen of course - after a couple of listens, I'm unsure as to whether this is a better album than the previous two - but happily, in regard to the second one, I think it's safe to say Jones has done both. She still sounds like the Norah we all love but she has made slight changes to her style in what, to this listener, sounds like a clever attempt to expand artistically without ruffling the feathers of her core audience. There's a new producer at the helm in Lee Alexander (Arif Mardin sadly passed away late last year) but while there's no overt new sound to speak of, there is a definite sense of a change in mood. The jaunty "Sinkin' Soon" has a darker edge and a sense of foreboding about it that's new, for instance, even though it is essentially a love song. It's a lot more percussive too. Things get slightly more electronic, even funky for a couple of minutes, on "Thinking About You", her most close-to-formula song on here and similarly, on "Be My Somebody". She nibbles at getting political on songs like "Wish I Could" and "My Dear Country" but she refrains from actually biting. On the former she sings: "Love in the time of war isn't fair/ He was my man but they didn't care". She sails a bit closer to the wind on the latter: "Nothing is as scary as election day," she sings, and later, "Who knows, maybe the plans will change/ Who knows, maybe he's not deranged." Further than many might have expected but I'm sure they'll be those who'll say she could've gone the distance.
And I do question the wisdom of the whistling on "Little Room".
But mostly there are no surprises here. Overall, the sound is a little drier maybe, with more acoustic guitar and cello than I recall hearing on her previous works but it's Norah Jones, still essentially the same but just a little different. Is she pop, is she jazz, is she country or is she folk? Maybe I'm getting too old to care but I just find attempts to categorise her boring now. Whatever she does, she does damn well and what's more, she makes it all seem so effortless. Her creamy voice never seems to rise above a whisper, a sonic caress, the kind of things lullabies are made of. (Maybe the sleepytime pop critic had a point after all). I put on my Norah Jones and I am immediately and very easily able to forget the madness going on all around me. The world feels like an easy, gentle place where everything is all right. Well worth paying $9.99 for, in my view.
Norah Jones and her music seem to be very polarising, if the reviews on this site are anything to go by. It seems people either love her or hate her. I love her of course and in my book, any female singer/songwriter who can achieve the level of commercial success that she has without her videos on heavy rotation on MTV, her airbrushed face (and body in skimpy dresses) plastered all over glossy magazines or a canny PR machine frenetically making sure she remains at the forefront of our collective consciousness, surely has to be doing something right.
Free Music Review: No Mere Grammy Guzzler
Hit: 5 Stars
Like her 2004 sophomore effort, "Feels Like Home," Norah Jones' latest maintains the sound that brought her national acclaim while still furthering her artistic endeavors.
"Not Too Late" proves she is not given to relying on a cash- cow formula; she not only continues to add inflections of country like last time around, but she eschews the American songbook in favor of a uniformly original array of songs -- all of which she co-wrote. This aids the record's warm, intimate atmosphere, which glimmers and glows despite the absence of the late legendary producer, Arif Mardin.
The slinky blues of "Thinking About You" is the ideal lead single. With its plaintive melody, organic jazz horns and restrained yet expressive vocals, it is musical chocolate cake. "Sinkin' Soon," meanwhile, is the most perplexing track. With its curious lyrics ("Like the oyster crack in the stew/The honey in the tea/Like the wheel of cheese high in the sky/We're gonna be sinkin' soon), the song sways and jerks with Jesse Harris (writer of her monster hit "Don't Know Why") on banjo and drummer Andy Borger working pots and pans. It continues the theme of fame's fickle nature that began with "Carnival Town" on her last LP.
In spite of her popularity with white collar right-wingers, Jones is not afraid to infuse her music with passionate liberal beliefs. With its lush, nervous mix of pianos and guitars, "Wish I Could" is the story of a lonely war widow and even lonelier other woman ("She says love in the time of war's not fair/He was my man but they didn't care/I don't tell her that I once loved you too"), while "Broken" finds a soldier irrevocably hardened by war ("He's got blood on his shoes and mud on his brim/Did he do it to himself or was it done to him?").
"My Dear Country," with a cabaretlike interlude, waxes on a terrifying election and a "deranged" politician without naming names:
"I cherish you my dear country/I love all the things that you've given me/And most of all that I am free/To have a song that I can sing/On election day."
The soothing "Wake Me Up" appropriately follows with its resigned, world-weary attitude, bringing in sounds of the heartland that continue in "Rosie's Lullaby" and the fun-loving "Be My Somebody," the latter marked by cheeky lyrics: "Last night was a record to be broken/It broke all over the kitchen floor."
"Little Room" attempts to shed her fuddy-duddy image with sexual undertones, while "Not My Friend" finds her safe in her own company -- not content to maintain a relationship with someone who wishes her unhappiness.
"The Sun Doesn't Like You" and "Until the End" are full of grace and character, and "Not Too Late" closes the disc with spare piano/vocal simplicity. Its optimistic message provides a perfect conclusion and its overwhelmingly pristine melody makes it an instant classic.
If "Come Away With Me" was rich, delicious comfort food, "Not Too Late" is more complex and sophisticated. Making artistic leaps and bounds, Jones proves that she is not a Grammy guzzler laughing all the way to the bank -- she is an artist's artist.
Free Music Review: An Immediate Masterpiece : The Evolution of Miss Shankar
Hit: 5 Stars
By any stretch of imagination, "Not Too Late" is an immediate masterpiece. Gone are the cover versions of songs that weren't hers, and those dull lullabies that seven people took to cowrote. In its place are some gorgeous melodies with self-written lyrics that elevate this album from being a run of the mill affair to one of those rare animals - a bonafide classic.
A note about the music - let the reviews not deter you. The music is very Norah-ish, in the best way possible, but there is something new here. What could be previously termed as "boring" is now "inspired". You won't fall asleep halfway through this album if you pay attention to the lyrics. It is so great to find an album these days that does not only speak about Love. And even though there are political messages on some of these songs, its muted enough to pass you by without offending you.
Also, while I consider "Come Away with Me" and "Feels Like Home" contemporary American jazz albums (debatable by most, I agree), I think "Not Too Late" is her hands down "Southern" album, even though it speaks of the very things the South hates to hear about. Its amazing that an album like this would find an audience if Norah wasn't who she is, but that's the beauty of it all, I think.
The standout here is "Wish I could", the opening track. Wow. The harmonies blend perfectly. The wonderful thing about this record is that Norah's voice is allowed to shine without the distraction of too much instrumentation (like on her second album). And while "Thinkin' About You" is hummable enough, its easily the most insipid track here - speaking of love in the most infantile sense possible. I think that she can afford to move beyond songs like these, pretty as they are.
Will "Not Too Late" win any awards despite being at least twice as better than her "Come Away with Me" album? Probably not. The reason being that Norah is not perceived as "new" or "fresh" anymore. However, if you listen to this CD, it's the freshest thing out of the Jones stable so far. My favorite little piece other than the opener is "The Sun Doesn't Like You" - listen and discover! What makes me really happy about this album is the Repeat Value it carries - I have already played it about six times at work through and through and it just gets better on repeat listening.
Do yourself a favor and pick this up, just to discover where American music is headed in general. This is a wonderful time for American music, and it's a testament to her growth and evolution that Norah Jones is the flagbearer for a new music generation. Yes, true talents like Joanna Newsom, Regina Spektor and Fiona Apple still don't get the adulation that they deserve, but if artists like Jones can win acclaim, it proves that theres justice after all.
Five Stars. Recommended without any reservations!
Free Music Review: thank goodness for Norah Jones
Hit: 5 Stars
Norah clearly develops her music organically, not to show off. She shares her feelings honestly, openly and forthrightly. In my estimation this is the best album of lyrical music to come out since Phoebe Snow's self-titled debut in 1974. It sketches the outlines of a worldview, stands back and allows the listener to enter in as far or as little as one may need to.
That being said, I want to jump up and down and turn off the Daly show because it's not funny enough anymore when I hear "my dear country"! It's so hilarious, that almost no buddy in a body will get the nightmarish-tinged ironic sense of some of the verses. But that's just fine, in fact, it's perfect. Perfect for the times. "Who knows, maybe he's not deranged?" George w. aside, we can feel this question posing itself in the minds of the volken in the early days before Hitler's ascendancy. Can't we hear this question whispering in the hearts of the people of Iraq during the reign of their recently executed leader? And in the considered estimation of the British adjutant to Idi Amin in Nigeria...
Tomorrow on February 1st, we are invited to e-mail our 2 senators, with the message: escalation of this conflict/unsuccesful occupation in Iraq is madness. Or whatever else you may feel on the issue. If you want to retain a voice in how your dear country is acting in the wider world, please do e-mail two human individuals who happen to be the senators from your state (assuming you live in America). But wait a minute here. If you happen to live in some other country, why not e-mail the united nations in NYC at the same time? February 1st, babies. it's happenin
And if you don't happen to read this until February 2nd or February 3rd, so much the better. Keep those cards & letters comin! The senate vote is mere days away. Have a little democracy-sized say in it. That's what America is supposed to be about - always has been.
"my dear country" is not merely a song on a Norah Jones album, it is a call to action for all those who care about the wider world in which they live.
Russel