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Review: James Raffoul
ALBUMS where you can safely say that each song is as memorable
as the previous one don't come along too often.
David Gray achieved it with White Ladder and although it wasn't
his first solo launch, it was the album that lifted him to cult
status. Now, Norah Jones is experiencing much of the same. Coldplay's
simmering Parachutes
album has a similar hallmark.
A soft mix of jazz, rhythm and blues with sexy and smart sounds,
Norah Jones' very personal album is striking chords and appealing
with people from all walks. It certainly feels as though, at the
moment, this collection of melodic and acoustic tunes is everywhere
you go.
Jones is superb throughout. Her voice gentle and simple, but
with a unique sound, her upbringing spurred by Ravi Shanker, her
Sitar playing father, who became a legend in his time with his
unique mix of blissful tunes.
Comprised of 14 tracks, and lasting 45 minutes, the album is
a brilliant showcase for Jones, who exhorts a fine range of notes
in her voice and manages to sound like an angel throughout.
Don't Know Why, as track one, is a personal and fairly
emotional track, but it just gets better and leaves you with a
great taste of things to come.
Tracks two and three whizz through to a personal favourite, Feelin'
The Same Way (4), when her vocal range floors everything around
you; it seems to tell a story of her possible undying love for
someone or something.
Title track five, Come Away With Me, is instantly recognisable
and has received most airplay on London's radio stations. It is
a tempting, teasing ballad and speaks of her dreams as she whittles
through Utopian circumstances that she'd love to find herself
in - 'I wanna wake up with the rain falling on a tin roof,
while I'm safe there in your arms'.
Shoot The Moon (6) pleases and has a fine piano solo;
Turn Me On (7) is Jones at her sexiest best (you can just
imagine her in a slinky little number, draped over a microphone
in a smoky jazz club); the moody Lone Star (8), with its
solitary drum tap, is a hopeful, wanting song; Tracks 9 and 10
slowly breeze their way through her range of vocal delicacies
and One Flight Down (11) seems to be a 'been there, done
that, got the broken heart T-shirt' and possible defiance to all
men. I'll cheer you up, Norah!
Nightingale (12) is a fantastic eclectic mix of guitar
and piano accompanied by her perfect voice straining to a tune
about past love. As you can tell, this album is extremely meaningful
to Jones, but I am glad she's invited us all along.
'You can take me away, Nightingale, can I fly right behind
you'.
A master-class.
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1. I Don't Know Why
2. Seven Years
3. Cold Cold Heart
4. Feelin' The Same Way
5. Come Away With Me
6. Shoot The Moon
7. Turn Me On
8. Lonestar
9. I've Got To See You Again
10. If I Were A Painter
11. One Flight Down
12. Nightingale
13. The Long Day Is Over
14. The Nearness Of You
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