Norah Jones
That’s a damned good hook: the music put visions of back porches, dusty roads, and big, big sunsets in my mind while the lyrics built a lament that tugged at my heartstrings, and the CD wasn’t half a minute along. The song, “Don’t Know Why,” leads off one of the more talked-about releases of the season: Rolling Stone picked Jones as one of ten artists to watch this year, and the New York Times Magazine expended 1,000 words comparing her to the likes of Nina Simone and Sarah Vaughan. Yet the recording is as noteworthy for what it isn’t as for what it is. It’s not loud, chaotic, or even particularly passionate–it’s just 14 intimately rendered songs about love and loss with a focus on musicianship. That’s all well and good, but it’s also firmly middle-of-the-road, and when, you might wonder, did that become the new edge?
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Blame it on extremity, which in some genres has been working on a bad name for a while now and in others has simply fallen out of vogue. Most of the anger expressed in hip-hop and rap metal these days seems to be theatrical; the hard beats that propelled hip-hop into the mainstream have been replaced by exotic rhythms (“Get Ur Freak On”) or virtuosic turntabling. Drum ‘n’ bass has retreated from the wild sounds of the Breakbeat Era into the chilly, laid-back styles of Reid Speed and DB.
Against those contributions, Come Away With Me falls short. Jones has a captivating voice, with an age-appropriate expectant air but also a touch of world-weariness. There are only three songs on the album worthy of it: “Don’t Know Why,” by her regular guitarist, Jesse Harris, “Feeling the Same Way,” by her bassist, Lee Alexander, and a cover of Hank Williams’s “Cold Cold Heart.” The rest of the recording, mostly originals by her bandmates, feels too meticulous and fussy. The songs aren’t necessarily the problem: the label originally had Jones record with producer Craig Street, who helped craft the distinctive sounds of Cassandra Wilson, Holly Cole, K.D. Lang, and Meshell Ndegeocello; given Street’s work with Wilson’s innovative Delta-jazz hybrid in particular, he would seem a natural choice to help Jones and her band develop their conception into an idiosyncratic sound. But the label rejected most of his work and brought in Arif Mardin, a producer and arranger whose lengthy resume includes work with Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, and Chaka Khan.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Joanne Savio.
