Norah Jones has a voice that pairs delectably with a fine glass of… grape juice and a rainy evening. Her music from the 2000s is for sitting inside and enjoying a slow dance or three. She is the perfect mix of jazz, pop and suave. Jones’ album “Visions,” released March 8, encompasses what her music has been and much more.
Right off the bat, “All This Time” has that classic Norah Jones vibe — it has the smooth and slight piano in the background and that same slowness to it. Jones’ music is simply refreshing. For her first non-Christmas album in four years, she has been able to take her music outside of high energy pop, yet maintains an audience that transcends generations. Jones speaks to the audience with the first track, welcoming her fans back to some newly recorded music with a hint of birdsong and the continuation of her sweet voice singing “All This Time.”
By the end of “All This Time,” Jones tells the audience to “Stay with me, I’ll make it easy” three times; just enough to hook folks in for the next song. By the second track, “Staring at the Wall,” listeners take Jones’ advice: to stay with her as she sends the dynamic of the album in a completely different direction. Forget the softness of classic Norah Jones, the song is filled with edgy guitar and drums followed by that same piano dripping into her music.
The video that accompanies the song shows her putting the piece together: the freshly written lyrics, bits of that sweet piano, moments of her riffing on the guitar and her dancing around the room. The words of the piece are displayed in handwriting around the documentary-esque montage; it seems like Jones is trying to connect with her young self, bringing back an edgy teenage Norah Jones. She makes it so with lyrics like, “Devil watches every step I take / Messing with the moves I’m tryin’ to shake.”
She drives the album “in her blue Cadillac” to the next song, “Paradise,” a three minute and 25 second song about losing her childhood. Jones is singing about some duality in the piece; not only does she miss her youth but she seems to miss a childhood friendship as well. She makes it clearer with the lyric, “I know I’ve got to let you go again / Although, I never wanted this to end / I know it’s time to let you go.”
“Queen of the Sea” is the least notable track in the album. The imagery Jones displays in the album is lovely and certainly is not lacking in the fourth song of the album. However, the song is missing the classic Norah Jones vibe. It still has the piano, but it echoes in a modern-edited fashion. Her rhymes are too easy, and the song neither adds nor subtracts from the album and it feels like it sits there with zero substance.
But man, does she pick the album up from zero back to 100 with the titular song “Visions.” Jones manages to pick the album back up with heavy guitar that follows her voice throughout the track. Her lyricism is Norah-Jones perfect with lines like, “I hear a hallelujah and I swear it’s coming through you / And I can’t believe I knew the first time / We met under the willow tree.” Her sweetness has returned with a song made up of two minutes and 42 seconds, a song with only four verses and her voice echoing in the background accompanied by scruffy guitar. It’s simple, but that’s what makes it beautifully perfect. The track is put together with a horn section placed in the middle with her voice singing a gentle melody.
It’s no wonder these tracks seem so dream-like; in an interview with Rolling Stone, Jones said, “A lot of the ideas came in the middle of the night or in that moment right before sleep.” The next song, “Swept Up in the Night,” has a similar dreamy quality to it. The album has a faint religious theme to it, with consistent mentions of God and the Devil. Jones does this with her lyrics, “Wings of God before my eyes / I stare but never act surprised.”
Jones comes back to her roots with a love song that brings the listener back to reality. “Alone With My Thoughts” is about a deep love and knowing someone else with that same depth. She showcases this with “To love from a distance through waves of the air (ooh-ooh) / To know your sadness, your joy, and your fears (ooh-ooh).” Just like her lyrics, the song has a depth to it, perfect for a proper slow-dance. She ends the lovely tune with “My love is for you.”
“That’s Life” is almost the conclusion to the album, wrapping up a lovely and dreamy twelve songs. However, producer Leon Michel and Jones have an exclusive bonus track, “Until my Heart is Found,” that can only be found on the vinyl and CD versions.
But before listeners get to the baker’s dozen, listeners must take a quick 4:22 to jam out to Jones’ jazzy, smooth closer. The song has drums and Jones’ lively voice to give it a quicker pace than the rest of the album. It’s a song of resilience and that is what Norah Jones is: resiliently coming back to make music after four long years.
Norah Jones has the perfect blend of slow dance, jazz and tunes to jam out to whenever and wherever. Her voice flows well on a midnight drive or while cooking dinner and this album is no different. This may be a semi-new Norah Jones with a touch of pop and modernity, but her timeless vibe is infused into this album. It is sweet, it is loving and it was made with perfection. The album doesn’t disappoint — Norah Jones never could.
