I don't think she's overrated. She does a certain kind of music that is enjoyable for some people, but I don't think she's a critics' darling. The reviews of her albums are usually 7/10, at best

I just think she's one of the most insipid artists of all time.

Never understood the hype or praise about her. But I definitely don't think she's overrated, but she's not underrated either. I loved her collaboration with Q-Tip on this cut:

It took me by surprised when I first heard it too. Hope she does more stuff in the vein.

Yes. She is... I perfer her sister and father.

[Edited 2/12/11 8:01am]

Yep. Still think she is boring as hell.

Vendetta1 said:

To be honest though she was the artist of the decade because she was the only one, successful, and also did diverse things. Norah was all over the place "not grandstanding" and "hyping" her fame and who she was working with, to me she is one of about 2-3 artists out of the last decade that have any cred or musical chops. I like how she took the fame and ignored it, totally stayed who she was before, i have not seen that from others! Norah was doing things with artists that no one heard of, after she had the fame, just like she was before she was "big", she didnt come out and have a blockbuster beyonce duet when she hit the big time. Norah is now the same person i saw before she was signed playing little clubs and opening (one show) for Joan Rivers, and selling her demo cd for 5bucks at the gigs, same person has not changed one bit. But musically she is all over with her work, most people here have NO CLUE the artists she worked with, they know the singles, they have never heard her work with Wax Poetic, or Peter Maliick, or her undercover band El Madmo, which was a rock band, the little willies which was a blue grass band, her work with everyone from ryan adams to herbie hancock to qtip to chuck d to kanye to dolly parton. (and this was just a sample, her musical work in the decade was stronger than any other by miles)

Now some find her boring, well, thats why we all have opinions, to me nothing is more boring than say RB music right now, or dance music, reggaeton music, or Beyonce to set aside one person, its all up to the listener, to me thats all repetitive

[Edited 2/12/11 8:16am]

I adore this gal. She's not everyone's cup of tea -- and doesn't try to be -- but I don't think she's overrated in the least.

Lammastide said:

Vendetta1 said:

Yep. Still think she is boring as hell.

It's not the poor girls fault, if you can hold a tune and play an instrument at the same time . . . the press and the industry hypes you as the greatest thing since slice bread.

I absolutely love everything about her. she sings beautifully, writes beautifully and is very charming herself. I go through phases when I listen to mostly nothing but her.

her take on Turn Me On is one of my favorite remakes ever:

lastdecember said:

To be honest though she was the artist of the decade because she was the only one, successful, and also did diverse things. Norah was all over the place "not grandstanding" and "hyping" her fame and who she was working with, to me she is one of about 2-3 artists out of the last decade that have any cred or musical chops. I like how she took the fame and ignored it, totally stayed who she was before, i have not seen that from others! Norah was doing things with artists that no one heard of, after she had the fame, just like she was before she was "big", she didnt come out and have a blockbuster beyonce duet when she hit the big time. Norah is now the same person i saw before she was signed playing little clubs and opening (one show) for Joan Rivers, and selling her demo cd for 5bucks at the gigs, same person has not changed one bit. But musically she is all over with her work, most people here have NO CLUE the artists she worked with, they know the singles, they have never heard her work with Wax Poetic, or Peter Maliick, or her undercover band El Madmo, which was a rock band, the little willies which was a blue grass band, her work with everyone from ryan adams to herbie hancock to qtip to chuck d to kanye to dolly parton. (and this was just a sample, her musical work in the decade was stronger than any other by miles).

Wow! I'm one of those clueless people you talked about. I absolutely think its cool that she kept her door open for different artists and still hold her own, reading your post I'm more impressed by the musical credentials this girl hold and at a very young age at that.

I love her versatility , she sang with Dolly, Ray Charles, Q-Tip and Wax Poetic(like you mentioned) and even though she maintained her musical persona with all of those people, she showed different sides of her at the same time.

I used to be so annoyed by my fellow orgers who dismissed her(esp the ones who were vocal about their frustration about mainstream's manufactured and plastic music) but I came to terms that its true, she's not everybody's cup of tea to be fair.

i didn't realize she was even still around

Can't say I'm a big fan, but I still think "Don't Know Why" is a great song.

Harlepolis said:

lastdecember said:

To be honest though she was the artist of the decade because she was the only one, successful, and also did diverse things. Norah was all over the place "not grandstanding" and "hyping" her fame and who she was working with, to me she is one of about 2-3 artists out of the last decade that have any cred or musical chops. I like how she took the fame and ignored it, totally stayed who she was before, i have not seen that from others! Norah was doing things with artists that no one heard of, after she had the fame, just like she was before she was "big", she didnt come out and have a blockbuster beyonce duet when she hit the big time. Norah is now the same person i saw before she was signed playing little clubs and opening (one show) for Joan Rivers, and selling her demo cd for 5bucks at the gigs, same person has not changed one bit. But musically she is all over with her work, most people here have NO CLUE the artists she worked with, they know the singles, they have never heard her work with Wax Poetic, or Peter Maliick, or her undercover band El Madmo, which was a rock band, the little willies which was a blue grass band, her work with everyone from ryan adams to herbie hancock to qtip to chuck d to kanye to dolly parton. (and this was just a sample, her musical work in the decade was stronger than any other by miles).

Wow! I'm one of those clueless people you talked about. I absolutely think its cool that she kept her door open for different artists and still hold her own, reading your post I'm more impressed by the musical credentials this girl hold and at a very young age at that.

I love her versatility , she sang with Dolly, Ray Charles, Q-Tip and Wax Poetic(like you mentioned) and even though she maintained her musical persona with all of those people, she showed different sides of her at the same time.

I used to be so annoyed by my fellow orgers who dismissed her(esp the ones who were vocal about their frustration about mainstream's manufactured and plastic music) but I came to terms that its true, she's not everybody's cup of tea to be fair.

Yeah the thing is she is still the person she was even before all this, she has more cred of any new artist that i know of, and i dont think there is another artist that could HONESTLY have Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson and then Herbie hancock and Charlie Hunter and then Qtip and CHuck D, all request to wanna work with her on their music, i just dont see that kind of "request" being tossed at any other artist at this point., and cant forget her work with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Ryan Adams, also Talib Kweli, the foo fighters and Outkast.

So to me that sums up an artist that is doing what an artist should do, record music, Norah isnt HYPE, the media jumped on her when "word" got around about her, SHE DID NOT sell out the box, that cd climbed the charts slowly and steadily as word of her got around, and "people" jumped on her she did not "jump" on them like so many do now, big difference, so im not understanding where people say she was "HYPED" she was never hyped, BLue Note does not have money to hype an artist in advance like that, had it not been for her work, that album might not even still be here, especially with the cd going away, and we cant forget the fact that the parent company EMI was/still is on life support, and also would be gone not for her, the beatles, radiohead and a few others.

So debates can wage is she boring this and that, as i said before, if you dive into all her work, i dont find it boring at all, to me nothing is more boring than repetitive beats, themes in writing, gimmicks, and prodcution, and that pretty much sums up about 90% of the other artists.

No, I don't think she's overrated at all.

She actually has a great voice.

Her music is a little too tame for me - even in my most mellow moods when I want to hear something really quiet and calm, it's too calm - but I could never say with a straight face that this woman has no talent and doesn't deserve whatever fanbase she has.

Big Woopie do, Ms. Jones has worked with well known, well regarded artist/producers and this

proves what? Less not confuse form vs. substance

Having said that . . .

As I mentioned in another thread:

I judge an artist, singer, musician by what they bring to the conversation in terms of musicianship, techinque/tone and/or compositions. I'm looking at their ability to interpret a lyric, their arrangements, their evolution as an artist from album to album. Ms. Jones (for me) falls into the same category as so many others . . . purchase one of her Cd's anyone of them because more or less they're all the same. Her singing, the same intonations, throw a music backtrack behind her and there ya go. That's why I consider her boring and overrated. (IMO)

Rayan said:

I absolutely love everything about her. she sings beautifully, writes beautifully and is very charming herself. I go through phases when I listen to mostly nothing but her.

her take on Turn Me On is one of my favorite remakes ever:

this is my fav cover of hers.

I really liked her first two albums, wasn't wild about the third and, as a result, haven't checked out the fourth yet. (Is it worth a listen?) I like her a lot as a singer and a song stylist. I mean, her thing is subtle, so it always runs the risk of being a bit 'snooze-y', but she seems to stay on the right side of the line - at least, I'd say she did to begin with.

Plus, I really like her piano style, which is nicely understated (and consequently underrated), for the most part. It's going to sound strange, but when I first heard her play, she reminded me of Prince; not because he's ever been one one to keep it subtle (he can never resist going, "Look at meeee! I can twiiiiiiidddle!", at some point, before mounting the mounting/humping the poor instrument!), but because they both have a tendency to throw in these nice gospelly cadences and bold licks to colour things, which always sound to me somehow very 'pure' and 'idealistic'. (It's hard to describe music, sometimes, but hopefully that makes some kind of sense.)

As for the other sides to her career: as an actress, she's a great musician....

I think she is talented. Love this cover!

http://www.youtube.com/wa...o9XsiutMIY

Nah, she fine as hell. I'll pretend to like her. lol

dunno- her fourth album if more diverse than most peoples careers.

She is working with Foo Fighters, Willie Nelson, Dirty Dozen Brass Band , OutKast F, Q-Tip f,Talib Kweli, Belle & Sebastian, Ray Charles, Ryan Adams, Dolly Parton,
Herbie Hancock and a bunch of others.

not too shabby.

I'm not a huge fan of Norah. But I don't believe she's overrated neither. I like her more when she works with other artists.

And lets not forget how Norah & Andre 3000 worked so well together:

deebee said:

As for the other sides to her career: as an actress, she's a great musician....

Hey, ain't no shame in my game, I adore My Blueberry Nights but then again I'm a huge fan of Kar Wai Wong's work, so I might be just a bit teensy weensy on the biased side here

[Edited 2/14/11 9:56am]

Harlepolis said:

deebee said:

As for the other sides to her career: as an actress, she's a great musician....

Hey, ain't no shame in my game, I adore My Blueberry Nights but then again I'm a huge fan of Kar Wai Wong's work, so I might be just a bit teensy weensy on the biased side here

[Edited 2/14/11 9:56am]

I watched it on a date, and, in fairness, it did the job as something warm and fuzzy to snuggle up to. (Better than, say, Antichrist or something....) I'll just never understand why so many people want to go from being excellent recording artists to pretty average actors.

(You can make HOW much in the movies?!? Oh, wait, I understand it now.......)