I'm looking forward to this, it sounds really good and The Times newspaper RARELY every give any 'pop' album five stars.

http://www.timesonline.co...81,00.html
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It even sounds as if she's having fun
By Lisa Verrico
Norah Jones's debut album blew the world's hats off, and now her second effort is even better

NORAH JONES
Feels Like Home (EMI)
Five Stars

NORAH JONES seems like a sensible girl. Two years after a low-key debut album, Come Away With Me, that sold close to ten million copies, won five Grammy Awards and is about to celebrate 100 weeks on the Billboard charts, the now very rich Ms Jones has yet to put a foot wrong. No embarrassing photos of drunken nights on the town, no bad-choice boyfriends revealing details of her love life, and no tales of diva-ish demands for redecorated dressing rooms.
If there had been, you could hardly blame her. Dallas-raised, New York-based Jones was just 22 when the jazz label Blue Note released Come Away With Me, a classy collection of covers and intimate original material that was expected to appeal only to a small, middle-aged audience.

Within months she was a pin-up and Rolling Stone cover star whose songs were being called the future of pop and whose soft, dreamy vocals were said to be soothing the States after 9/11. All she had wanted was to release a nice little album to prove she could make a career out of music.

There were other pressures too. Suddenly strangers were interested in her relationship with her estranged, octogenarian father, the sitar superstar Ravi Shankar. (A film about dad and daughter went into production in India last year, despite objections from both.) Jazz purists were on Jones’s case too, accusing her of diluting the music for a MOR audience. Last May, she claims to have had a breakdown, although true to form, she did it quietly, behind closed doors.

Jones stayed on the rails despite being on the road for more than a year. And never did it look as if fame had gone to her head. On stage, she called herself a dork; in interviews, she claimed the success of her debut was a freaky accident, and in private, she practised piano because she didn’t think she could play very well.

OK, it’s not very rock’n’roll, but her sensible lifestyle has paid off. Written between tours, then recorded in New York last autumn, Jones’s second album, Feels Like Home, is as good as, if not better than, its predecessor. As for the freaky accident, there’s little doubt it’s about to happen again.

Admittedly, Feels Like Home isn’t much of a move-on musically, although it does extend the singer’s range slightly. While Come Away With Me was persistently down-tempo, the new songs occasionally pick up the pace. Now, there’s as much country as there is jazz, the lyrics aren’t all about love, and Jones finally sounds as if she’s having fun. And to annoy the jazz purists, there’s a duet with Dolly Parton.

Jones’s real ace, however, is a voice that has come into its own. Perhaps it’s just that her singles — Don’t Know Why and her debut’s title track — are still radio regulars two years on. Rather than hear a mix of Billie and Dusty, with the phrasing of Etta James, Jones now simply sounds like herself.

As if to prove as much, she has chosen one of the chirpier songs, Sunrise, as the first single and album opener. One of several tracks co-written by Jones and her bassist boyfriend Lee Alexander, it’s as close as she has come to a pop song, though without sacrificing her trademark, low-key, jazz-club vibe. Elsewhere, the blues-soul storyteller In the Morning is almost a toe-tapper, and Above Ground is a slow, bluesy, bass-driven number verging on rock. But it’s the blue-grass duet with Dolly, the superb, uptempo Creepin’ In, that shows Jones can still surprise.

Mostly though, Feels Like Home is business as usual, with a blend of beautiful ballads and confident covers. Those Sweet Words is a fragile, piano-backed track with a featherlight vocal; Toes boasts electric guitars; and Jones almost whispers her way through the sparse Carnival Town. Her best original composition, however, is the heartstopper What Am I to You?, with its shimmering organ and twangy guitars courtesy of the Band’s Levon Helm and Garth Hudson.

As for the covers, there’s a slowed-down version of Townes Van Zandt’s Be Here to Love Me and a Tom Waits track, The Long Way Home, which he sent Jones as a demo after hearing her debut. The real fan-pleaser is sure to be the album-closer, Don’t Miss You at All, which was part of Jones’s live set last year. Essentially the Duke Ellington instrumental Melancholia, with Jones’s own lyrics on top, this is one even uptight jazz critics will find hard to fault.

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[This message was edited Tue Jan 27 3:20:28 PST 2004 by Navjot]

It is ok, it is more a continuation of her last album.

Don't get me wrong I like Norah Jones have since I saw her at Celly 2002 (in fact went out and bought the album next day since she hadnt taken any to PP to sell!)

just right now I am more impressed with Katie Melua than Norah Jones effort

www.lizzwright.net

nuff said!!

Can't wait to get this cd. Norah is a pure singer with no gimmicks whatsoever.

kisscamille said:

Agreed. And I think she's sooo cute.

So basically if you thought the first one was terribly overrated, this one will be what, grossly overrated? And Norah has the phrasing of Etta James? What were they smoking .
[This message was edited Tue Jan 27 12:36:39 PST 2004 by VoicesCarry]

Talented women! Joss stone is da bomb too. Can't wait till their CD's come out this year!