Norah Jones is an award-winning singer/songwriter who also plays piano. Her album Come Away With Me garnered five Grammy awards and launched her into an unparalleled career that revitalized piano-forward jazz for today’s audience.
2009’s The Fall was a study of her relationship, while Little Broken Hearts (2012) experimented with moody electric instrumentation that nodded towards rock and soul music. Additionally, she collaborated with Seth MacFarlane on the Family Guy soundtrack.
Come Away With Me
Come Away With Me was Norah Jones’ groundbreaking debut and an international phenomenon, winning her the hearts and ears of audiences everywhere. Her soothing, pure vocals captured listeners around the globe; recalling Patsy Cline or Billie Holiday without sounding like them but possessing her own distinct quality. A competent pianist herself, Jones also understood tasteful musical accompaniment with Jesse Harris co-writing most of its tracks for Come Away With Me.
This 20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition captures a singular talent and shares its production story in full. In addition to a remaster of the original album, it contains 22 previously unreleased tracks: three demos she sent Blue Note (including her striking version of Fran Landesman/Tommy Wolf’s classic ‘Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most’) as well as her First Session demos as well as an unheard original version recorded at Allaire Studios with producer Craig Street.
Feels Like Home
Jesse Harris originally composed this track from Little Broken Hearts to express a person who feels trapped by relationships they made but then failed to pursue, regretting what might have been but not knowing how. Philip Andelman directed its haunting music video. Nominated for a Grammy Award, Norah Jones performed live at the ceremony but didn’t win; Jesse Harris’ version did! This song can help develop your listening skills.
Not Too Late
Not Too Late features an elegantly coy photo of Norah Jones that may give an impression that she has made a dramatic turn in her music, yet that’s far from being the case.
Jones has effortlessly brought together all of the different influences that had permeated her previous albums into one cohesive whole with Not Too Late, her third offering. Where Come Away With Me had jazz influences while Feels Like Home dabbled in Countryesque territory; Not Too Late brings them both together with ease driven finesse.
Jones may still sound very similar to how she did on her previous albums, if you don’t pay close attention. But for those who do pay attention, Not Too Late marks an impressive progression of sorts.
Pick Me Up Off the Floor
Norah Jones took a hiatus from album releases following 2016’s Day Breaks to focus on short sessions with various collaborators and produce some songs for Pick Me Up Off the Floor; an anthology which plays like a carefully considered thematic song cycle.
This album is driven by her breathy, seductive vocals and ability to channel existential dread and the struggle to find hope into intimate moments of personal action and emotion. Musically, its composition can vary widely with Celtic fiddles and hip-hop percussion featuring on tracks like “Flame Twin” or the mournful waltzing “Heartbroken, Day After.”
What holds it all together is the consistent production, which sounds bright and roomy – an ideal backdrop for Jones’s songs. As a result, Norah Jones has created a deeply rewarding album, one which shows she still takes risks by pushing herself outside her comfort zone.