Norah Jones ist eine Magierin. Ihre Songs sind Ruhepol in einer hektisch
lärmenden Welt. Das Geheimnis ihres Erfolgs zu ergründen, scheint
trotzdem ein schier unmögliches Unterfangen. Weltweit wurden von
ihren ersten beiden Alben, dem Sensationsdebüt Come Away With Me
(2002), das ihr acht Grammys bescherte, und Feels Like Home (2004), sage
und schreibe 32 Millionen Exemplare verkauft -- über alle Hörergenerationen
hinweg.
Am 26. Januar 2007 erscheint mit Not Too Late ihr drittes Album, für
das sie alle Songs selbst komponiert oder zumindest mitgeschrieben hat.
Die aparte 27-jährige Sängerin und Pianistin, die mädchen-,
madonnen- und musenhaft zugleich wirkt, ist zu voller Blüte gereift.
Bezaubernd!
(amazon)
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Recoils from fame usually aren't as subdued as Norah Jones' third album
Not Too Late, but such understatement is customary for this gentlest of
singer/songwriters. Not Too Late may not be as barbed or alienating as
either In Utero or Kid A it's not an ornery intensification of
her sound nor a chilly exploration of its furthest limits - but make no
mistake, it is indeed a conscious abdication of her position as a comfortable
coffeehouse crooner and a move toward art for art's sake. And, frankly,
who can blame Jones for wanting to shake off the Starbucks stigmata? Although
a large part of her appeal has always been that she sounds familiar, like
a forgotten favorite from the early '70s, Jones is too young and too much
a New York bohemian to settle into a role as a nostalgia peddler, so it
made sense that she started to stretch a little after her 2004 sophomore
set Feels Like Home proved that her surprise blockbuster 2002 debut Come
Away With Me was no fluke. First, there was the cabaret country of her
Little Willies side band, then there was her appearance on gonzo art-rocker
Mike Patton's Peeping Tom project, and finally there's this hushed record,
her first containing nothing but original compositions. It's also her
first album recorded without legendary producer Arif Mardin, who helmed
her first two albums (he passed away in the summer of 2006), giving them
a warm, burnished feel that was nearly as pivotal to Jones' success has
her sweet, languid voice. Mardin died in the summer of 2006 and in his
absence, Jones recorded Not Too Late at the home studio she shares with
her collaborator, bassist and boyfriend Lee Alexander. Although it shares
many of the same sonic characteristics as Jones' first two albums, Not
Too Late boasts many subtle differences that add up to a distinctly different
aesthetic. Jones and Alexander have stripped Norah's music to its core.
Gone are any covers of pop standards, gone are the studio pros, gone is
the enveloping lushness that made Come Away With Me so easy to embrace,
something that Not Too Late is most decidedly not. While this might not
have the rough edges of a 4-track demo, Not Too Late is most certainly
music that was made at home with little or no consideration of an audience
much larger than Jones and Alexander. It's spare, sometimes skeletal,
often sleepy and lackadaisical, wandering from tunes plucked out on acoustic
guitars and pianos to those with richer full band arrangements. Norah
Jones has never exactly been lively - part of her charm was her sultry
slowness, ideal for both Sunday afternoons and late nights - but the atmosphere
here stultifying even if it's not exactly unpleasant. After all, unpleasantness
seems to run contrary to Jones' nature, and even if she dabbles in Tom
Waits-ian carnivalesque stomps (Sinkin' Soon) or tentatively
stabs at politics (My Dear Country), it never feels out of
place; often, the shift is so subtle that it's hard to notice. That subtlety
is the biggest Achilles heel on Not Too Late, as it manifests itself in
songs that aren't particularly distinctive or performances that are particularly
varied. There are exceptions to the rule and they all arrive with full
band arrangements, whether it's the lazy jazz shuffle of Until the
End, the country-tinged Be My Somebody or the wonderful
laid-back soul of Thinking About You. These are songs that
not only sound full but they sound complete, songs that have a purposeful
flow and are memorable for both their melody and sentiment. They would
have been standouts on Feels Like Home but here they are even more distinctive
because the rest of the record plays like a sketchbook, capturing Jones
and Alexander figuring out how to move forward after such great success.
Instead of being the end result of those experiments, the completed painting
after the sketch, Not Too Soon captures their process, which is interesting
if not quite compelling. But its very release is a clear statement of
artistic purpose for Norah Jones: its ragged, unfinished nature illustrates
that she's more interested in pursuing her art than recycling Come Away
With Me, and if this third album isn't as satisfying as that debut it
nevertheless is a welcome transitional effort that proves her artistic
heart is in the right place.
(Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All
Music Guide)
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