REVIEW: NORAH JONES - VISIONS

 

4/5

Norahvisions.

Ahead of the release of yesterday's ninth wonder of a Norah Jones album ('Visions'), the Los Angeles Times ran a piece to celebrate this album coming out a day after International Women's Day (let's hear it for them, always). They called the legendary Jones, one of the last "success stories of the CD era". And the diamond 'Come Away With Me' released an amazing twenty years ago when Norah was just 23 shows. It went platinum four times in its first 12 months of release and resulted in an armful of Grammys and an iconic portrait from that event for the smoky and smouldering vocal singer and songwriter. Since then, from the 'Sunrise' of 'Feels Like Home', to the personal favourite for deeper meaning that Norah says is for each individual fan, 'Rosie's Lullaby' of 'Not Too Late', she's released classics by the millions. 'Chasing Pirates' and switching it up for 'The Fall', before taking 'Happy Pills' on a whole new style that killed it like 'Miriam'. When it came time to 'Begin Again', the amazing artist who has made albums with everyone from Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi ('Rome' with Jack White) to Green Day's Billie Joe Armstrong ('Foreverly' for The Everly Brothers), not to mention formed supergroups like Puss N Boots, or The Little Willies (for Nelson, not your appendage), considered releasing playlists instead of albums. Thankfully, she brought it back to the basics of the 'Day Breaks' jazzy beginnings. All before 2020's pandemic, 'Pick Me Up Off The Floor' did the very same thing to us amidst our collective struggles.

It's been a long time, but Miss Jones has been busy since then. Touring (seeing her in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics Nippon Budokan in with someone I loved was an absolute dream) and putting festive albums under your tree. If you thought that Jones covering the Christmas classics like Beatles numbers atop the Empire State Building was cool (more like bitterly cold at that time of year), then you should hear the original Yuletide standards from this 'Jolly Jones' on a bicycle in Brooklyn. Now, New York's finest, and one of the America greats who deserves her place next to the Springsteens and Dylans like the ever underrated Ben Harper, takes another left turn for the bolder and better. Giving us one of the first marquee albums of the year, like her friends in Green Day. In what looks like a new Maggie Rogers treat of a first quarter. 'Running' with it like her stellar first single that brings those same 'Sunrise' sing-a-long harmonies back, this Blue Note beauty saves the best for last like the 'That's Life' outstanding original that could stand next to the Sinatra song of the same name. On the powerhouse penultimate, 'Alone With My Thoughts', Jones muses, "Let's try a test/Through space and through time/I'll whisper your name/It'll bounce down the line/Slowly explode into showers of shine/Ooh, ooh." And this album of rough but ready demos with the El Michels Affair Dap King Leon Michels does exactly that in the staples of its psychedelic seventies soul ready to surf.

'Paradise' perfect like the video filmed on a Super Bowl stranded Santa Monica pier in Los Angeles, looking like Coney Island, 'Visions' sees an even greater path at the end of Route 66. 'Staring At The Wall' like the studio session released in YouTube anticipation like a Tiny Desk Concert for your NPR. Norah's been doing this since the pandemic, and her title track cuts even deeper in these times. Telling us, "We met under the willow tree/You stood in front of me/Now I don't like surprises/But the look in your eyes/Is coming at me wise like a freight train." From the inspired intro 'All This Time', as iconic as the 'Good Morning' of those with 'Little Broken Hearts', this 'Queen Of The Sea' swims on a Bruce boardwalk. Born to ride the waves of change as the refrains of the revelatory 'I Just Wanna Dance' cuts the rug and all your troubles away. 'Swept Up In The Night' like the lyrics of, "Wings of God before my eyes/I stare but never act surprised/I need you so." Then in the morning after, "I'm finally awake/There were times when I lost my mind/But now I'm fine/I'm finally awake/Stuck in your sadness, swallowed me away/But I'm finally awake/The thumping in the walls is the beat of my own heart/But I'm finally awake" ('I'm Awake'). Whether it be the unreleased 'Until My Heart Is Found', or the "stop and stare/Breathe the air/No one cares what you have to say/Solitude makes me rude/But in time, we all laugh and play" of 'On My Way', Norah Jones has released another classic for her catalogue. Critics will call it like they see it, and over the decades of her great age, they'll cherry-pick and choose which albums they deem the best with their trends of what's in and what's out. What's clear to hear, however, is there has hardly been an amazing artist as consistent. They're all compelling chapters in her own great American songbook, but run with this spin off of sorts and all the trajectories her style might take her with substance. Like a tour t-shirt we'll always have a Jones for Norah. But this wonder of innervisions takes you even higher, breaking new ground. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Playlist Picks: 'Running', 'Alone With My Thoughts', 'That's Life'.