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Volume CXXXIII, Number 15 |
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Norah makes sweet second album
LISA PETERSON
STAFF WRITER
One would think it impossible for Norah Jones to top the immense success of 2002's mega-selling, Grammy-sweeping Come Away With Me.
However, on Feels Like Home, released February 10, Jones proves to be even more innovative and talented.
According to SoundScan, the album debuted at number one on the charts, selling a million copies its first week. The album includes several covers as well as songs that Jones and members of her band penned themselves.
Feels Like Home is a unique blend of pop, country, jazz and folk music, which has become Jones's signature style. However, while delightfully low-key, it isn't as uniform as the first album was. The songs represent a wider variety of tempos and subjects. True to its title, Feels Like Home is a warm, comfortable album.
"Creepin' In," with guest Dolly Parton, is the biggest departure from Come Away With Me. It is daringly bluegrass with an upbeat tempo. According to her website, Jones hesitated to put it on the album because it was so drastically different. However, after her performance with Parton at the Country Music Awards in 2003, she decided to invite the veteran country star to sing on the album.
The album's first single, "Sunrise," is an endearing love song with a soulful folk melody. Jones and her boyfriend Lee Alexander, who is also her bassist, co-wrote the lyrics. "Sunrise / Sunrise / Looks like morning in your eyes / But the clocks held 9:15 for hours," Jones croons.
"What Am I to You?" is a catchy blues tune blended with some jazz. Jones's smoky voice gives extra emphasis to the mournful tone of the song. "When I look in your eyes / I can feel the butterflies / I'll love you when you're blue / But tell me darlin' true / What am I to you?"
"In the Morning" also deviates from the soft tone of the album as an edgy blues song, with Jones wailing, "Funny how my favorite shirt / Smells more like you than me."
The simple lyrics of "Toes" and "Carnival Town" are nonetheless effective in creating songs the listener is moved to sing along with. "Toes" has a bittersweet tone with a backdrop of tinkling piano notes. Jones sings about a river she never has time to enter and so her "toes just touch the water." "Carnival Town" has an eerie carousel melody coupled with eloquent imagery.
Jones includes several lovely ballads like the soft and whimsical "Those Sweet Words" and sad, gently rolling "Humble Me."
Jones's "Don't Miss You at All" is actually Duke Ellington's "Melancholia," which Jones created lyrics for and retitled. Her other covers include Townes van Zandt's "Be Here to Love Me" and Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan's "The Long Way Home."
This raw, au natural album avoids the synthesizers and computers that many artists have come to rely on, and instead, the listener can enjoy the purity of Jones's voice. She has made a concerted effort to continue with her live band, The Handsome Band, as well as incorporate many guest musicians onto the album.
Feels Like Home boasts not only beautiful vocals by Jones, but also well-crafted, emotionally-charged lyrics and masterful piano playing. By no means a heavy album, it is truly the stuff dreams are made of. In "Above Ground" Jones sings, "Pour the night into a glass / Can I sip it slow and make it last?" Her longing, jazzy number, "The Prettiest Thing," encompasses the overall feeling of the entire album with "I'm dreaming again / Like I've always been / And way down low / I'm thinkin' of the prettiest thing."
This standout album is an extension of Come Away With Me's class and simple elegance, while at the same time, shows Jones's willingness to develop her sound. Feels Like Home is a must-have for any true music fan. There's definitely no place like Home.
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