Album Review 2: Norah Jones - ‘Not too Late’

By Bill James Feb 6, 2007, 14:46 GMT

There is one significant difference between Nora’s first two albums and ‘Not too Late’: she wrote or co-wrote every word of the 13 tracks.

Much like the great Southern-gothic writer, Flannery O’Connor, Norah Jones is an unassuming, soft-spoken, sparrow.  Ms. Jones’ albums’ are soft and lulling and rarely do they stir ill-will.  She sings of love, loss, longing, dreaming, wishing, pining, sinking, weeping, and all the other clichés that are the bedrock of our maudlin romantic notions.  But with her latest offering, ‘Not too Late,’ Ms. Jones is following Ms. O’Connor’s notion of good writing: to lull your listener/reader and then clobber them with a 2x4.
 
In case you were in a coma during 2002-3, Ms. Jones’ first album ‘Come Away with Me’ was a phenomenon.  Nora was new and we were in the middle of a female piano player/singer kick with Alicia Keys the year before and Michelle Branch and then Vanessa Carlton.  And of course, Nora being Ravi Shankar’s mystery daughter added an allure for many boomers.  But, when ‘Come Away with Me’ flew off store shelves and cleaned house at the Grammy’s, one would think that Ms. Jones had reshaped the course of musical history.

Following this meteoric success, Ms. Jones toured and valiantly tried to keep her band and music simple.  In 2004, she gave us ‘Feels Like Home.’  And as the title implies, it was warm, winsome, comfortable, and boring as hell.  ‘Feels Like Home’ also damaged Ms. Jones’ musical credibility.  For similar reasons that Henry Winkler could never find steady work after ‘Happy Days,’ Ms. Jones had also allowed herself to be trapped – musically typecast. Sure, we hear that she sits-in all over New York in various jazz clubs.  But her albums were Christmas gifts for mothers-in-law, grandmothers, and anyone easily offended by rhythm.  

But there is one significant difference between Nora’s first two albums and ‘Not too Late’: she wrote or co-wrote every word of the 13 tracks. Now don’t think there’s no mush or trite sentimentalism here (calm down soccer-mom’s you’ll, still enjoy the album), but Ms. Jones does make some substantial statements.  When she sings of loss in “Wish I Could,” the loss is due to a war and an indifferent government.  In “My Dear Country,” we hear a young voter that loves her country but is mystified by how fearful we all are.  And of course, in “Sinkin’ Soon” Nora offers up a bacchanalian bar song about a boat of sticks and hay and a clueless captain who’s dropped his oar. 

Ms. Jones’ will not alienate her fans, but she may frighten some.  ‘Not too Late’ is often a melancholy meditation from a disenfranchised citizen or maybe just a weary soul.  Nora alludes to lost children, disillusionment, and betrayal; she sings that it’s not too late, but we wonder if she believes her own words. 

If you want the same old Nora, with the lilting voice and polite piano style, you’ll find it on ‘Not too Late.’  But you’ll also hear that same familiar voice, one that we’ve grown so comfortable with, sing songs of uneasiness with an eye toward oblivion. Because just as Flannery O’Connor used her metaphoric 2X4 to wake her readers up, so Nora Jones is doing her best to ease and clobber our heads.

‘Not too Late’ is now available at Amazon. Visit the music database for more information and a complete track listing.