I first bought Norah Jones' debut album "Come Away With Me" not because I thought I'd become obsessed with it, but rather because it seemed like a good, solid music choice. I knew it had won several awards and was selling well. What I didn't know was that I would become absolutely infatuated with what I still consider to be one of my favorite albums of all time. As such, I had almost worryingly high expectations for that album's follow-up.
When I pop Norah Jones' latest release, "Feels Like Home," into my laptop, my media player lists the genre as "Miscellaneous," which actually turns out to be a very appropriate categorization. Even more so than "Come Away With Me," which wowed audiences and critics alike and garnered Jones and company eight (count them) Grammys in 2003, Jones' sophomore effort showcases the forever unpretentious star's versatility.
Moreover, "Feels Like Home" is proof positive that the success of Jones' first album was no accident. On the contrary, her latest effort is equally enchanting, intimate and soulful as her first, and yet it is not a carbon copy. She pushes the envelope just far enough so that the listener can sense that she has matured as an artist, but the album is not such a marked change that those who fell in love with "Come Away With Me" will be put off.
Jones herself unassumingly described the evolution from "Come Away With Me" to "Feels Like Home," saying, "I'm glad that people liked the last album. It was where I was at the time, musically. This is where I am now. That's what a recording is for me, like a snapshot."
Whereas Jones' first "snapshot" could almost have been relegated to the jazz/blues category, "Feels Like Home" is truly genre-defying. While songs like "Be Here To Love Me," "What Am I To You" and "Don't Miss You At All" evoke the jazzy spirit of her last album, "Creepin' In" and "The Long Way Home" have a distinctly country feel to them (and we're talking good, traditional, down-home country -- none of this newfound, electric, trying-too-hard-to-be-a-crossover-pop-sensation crap).
With its creative use of banjo and prominent bass line on the one hand and Jones' bluesy vocals on the other, "Sunrise," the album's opening track and first single, beautifully blends both genres. The edgier (well, edgier for Norah) "Above Ground" and "In the Morning" sound like they could be the work of someone like indie rocker Ani DiFranco, while other songs are reminiscent of the likes of the Indigo Girls and Tracy Chapman. Some tracks challenge the bounds of traditional genres completely. One thing "Feels Like Home" is pleasantly devoid of is anything as pedantic or trite as might fall under the category of pop music.
The album is rife with gifted guest stars. Certainly the most well-known of these is Dolly Parton, who lends her talent to the delightful "Creepin' In," but equally worthy of note are Daru Oda's backup vocals and the contributions of Kevin Breit (which include several varieties of guitar-playing and "foot-tapping" on one track).
The album's lyrics are beautifully simple and effective. "In the Morning" aptly sums up the experience of breaking up: "I try to quit you but I'm too weak/ Waking up without you/ I can hardly speak at all
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