The Same Season: Norah Jones, 'The Fall'

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NORAH JONES HAS a pleasant voice and an uncanny knack for rendering any musical genre soporific.

On past albums she ostensibly performed jazz and country, although besides a few minor shifts in instrumentation she always sounds like mellow adult contemporary. Her latest, "The Fall," includes collaborations with indie musicians Ryan Adams and Will Sheff of Okkervil River, but despite a few fleeting moments of distortion, "The Fall" is far from a Mark E. Smith tribute. And besides a few especially silly lyrics, there is nothing here to alienate the many fans Jones won with her first three albums.

Album-opening first single "Chasing Pirates" has a decent groove, and is more dynamic and concise than most of "The Fall," although the lyric, "I don't know how to slow it down," is still overstating the case. This venture into midtempo pop songwriting hardly warrants such a declaration.

"Young Blood" is another less sleepy offering, although it is notable mostly for its lyrics, which seem to be a bid for inclusion on the soundtrack to the next "Twilight" sequel. There aren't just references to kisses on the neck; there are lines as explicitly supernatural as "we gun down werewolves wherever we go." "It's Gonna Be" is less fantastical, but its propulsive percussion and funky organ qualify it as one of the less lethargic offerings on hand.

Jones has a few other quirky lyrical moments, although even these aren't always sufficient to sustain the listener's interest. After the fleeting smirk brought on by the opening line "If I could touch myself" (immediately followed, in fairness, by "the way you touch me") "I Wouldn't Need You" settles into a plodding bore of a love song. Closing track "Man of the Hour" demonstrates a whimsy unseen elsewhere, a sweet, simple piano composition in which a wry Jones bemoans being unable to "choose between a vegan and a pothead."

The bulk of "The Fall," like most of Jones' recorded output to date, is well-crafted, and her vocals are always strong. Her songwriting is consistent, too — with very rare exceptions it is bland and inoffensive. And the CD is less indebted to jazz traditions than her previous work, rendering it even less distinctive.

There's a reason Norah Jones albums have been a popular ambient music choice at Starbucks. She records perfect background music, never demanding so much attention that patrons might be distracted from their newspapers or conversations. More crucially, prolonged exposure might directly result in increased sales of caffeinated beverages.

» Listen to "The Fall" in its entirely here.

Written by Express contributor Meg Zamula
Photos by Autumn DeWilde/Blue Note Records