Does She Make You Happy?

It's about time I got around to writing a quick post on Norah Jones and her most recent record, ...Little Broken Hearts.

"Solo artist" is not a particularly meaningful term these days. If you look at the credits for a Christina Aguilera record, it will be immediately clear to you that you are not just getting "Christina Aguilera" on that record: you are also getting a team of professionals that in various ways has created the record's music. Moreover, Aguilera may have a very impressive set of pipes but she doesn't play any musical instruments. In contrast, from Not Too Late onward Norah Jones has written or co-written - with no more than one collaborator in all cases but one - all of the songs on her records, and she also plays a simple keyboard and/or guitar part on the overwhelming majority of those songs. Jones may not be the musical polymath that, say, Todd Rundgren or Brian Eno is, but she definitely counts as a bona fide solo artist.

The only Norah Jones song that I can recall ever hearing on the radio is "Don't Know Why" from Come Away with Me, Jones' 2002 debut - here's hoping that the commercial radio situation where you live is not as dreadful as it is here in New Orleans. On the basis of "Don't Know Why", and also because she records for Blue Note Records, Jones is sometimes labeled a "jazz artist"; if this is your conception of Jones, then ...Little Broken Hearts will throw you for a loop.

Much has been written about ...Little Broken Hearts' foray into indie rock and how different it is from Jones' other records, and several of its songs do in fact brim with indie artsiness, namely, "Good Morning", "After the Fall", "Travelin' On", and "Miriam". However, if you've heard The Fall, Jones' previous record, then you know that there is a sparse Johnny Cash-ish country side to what she does, and there is some of that on ...Little Broken Hearts - indeed, my two favorite tracks on the record, "She's 22" and "4 Broken Hearts", are in this vein.

The aforementioned "Miriam" was chosen for the record's second single, a very interesting choice in that lyrically its narrator confronts 'the other woman' and ultimately decides to kill her - I'm gonna smile when I take your life - who knew that our Norah was a locked-and-loaded kind of gal?

In sum, if you like Jones' traditionalist side - if you are looking for songs like "My Dear Country" and "Back to Manhattan" - then you will probably be disappointed by ...Little Broken Hearts, but if you like her country side and are willing to let her push the musical envelope somewhat, then ...Little Broken Hearts is the record for you.