I guess I've been aware of Norah Jones for a while - her first album, what seems ages ago, was ubiquitous (though I never actually listened to it), and while the general reception made it sound pleasant enough, it didn't seem likely to be something I'd particularly enjoy (ie coffee house-suitable jazzy vocal pop). I knew that she was still going around, and the (to that stage non-existent) interest factor went up a bit when she showed up in My Blueberry Nights, but still, she remained peripheral for me until those fantastic drop-ins on Rome - which were enough to get me to buy this new one of hers.
Actually, the thing that really tipped it was that Little Broken Hearts is billed as a collaboration with Danger Mouse, the driving force behind Rome, and this album isn't a million miles from the Jones-contributed vocals on that other record. On many of the songs, there's the same sense of slightly chilly drama, jazzy elements largely subsumed by a rootsier, spaghetti-western vibe itself lightly cloaked with a twinkling airiness; a couple of the songs in the middle in particular, "Take It Back" and "After The Fall", really nail it. All of that said, there's something just a bit insubstantial about the album - I'm not sure where it comes from - but it's the high points that linger in the mind.
Actually, the thing that really tipped it was that Little Broken Hearts is billed as a collaboration with Danger Mouse, the driving force behind Rome, and this album isn't a million miles from the Jones-contributed vocals on that other record. On many of the songs, there's the same sense of slightly chilly drama, jazzy elements largely subsumed by a rootsier, spaghetti-western vibe itself lightly cloaked with a twinkling airiness; a couple of the songs in the middle in particular, "Take It Back" and "After The Fall", really nail it. All of that said, there's something just a bit insubstantial about the album - I'm not sure where it comes from - but it's the high points that linger in the mind.
