Acquired Tastes: Norah Jones

I've been trying to forego critical analysis of Norah Jones or her music for several reasons. First, I really find her a wonderfully pleasant personality, with a distinct voice and a nonchalant joie de vivre about her. Second, I suspect that, unlike the country, soul and blues singers she admires (with good reason) she's not meant for such rarified heights.

At any rate, it was surprising to find that Slate writer Jody Rosen shares my sentiments about her. Here are some excerpts from her article:

"Jones is by all accounts a lovely, unpretentious, and, yes, funny person. She was still sharing a walkup in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, when she carted off an armful of Grammys a few years back, and though she and Alexander have since moved into a fancy Manhattan loft, she has shown zero interest in the usual trappings of megastardom. She doesn't frequent glitzy parties, almost certainly has no stylist on her payroll, and has never strode into a West Hollywood nightclub on Paris Hilton's arm. She still turns up in tiny rooms in Manhattan and Brooklyn to play country cover tunes with her oldest and dearest pals."

"Jones' problem is not that her music is subdued. On the contrary. She keeps trying to push her music into "hotter," more expressive territory, when she should be playing to her strength, emphasizing her cool and reserve. Instead of worshipping at the altars of American country, soul, and blues singers, Jones would do well to look to cosmopolitans like Astrud Gilberto, Chet Baker, and Sade, who find the pathos in froideur. She has shown her willingness to stretch when she gets out of her snug musical circles, dueting with Andre 3000 on Outkast's "Take Off Your Cool," and even singing the word "motherfucker" several times on Peeping Tom's "Sucker." Surely co-starring with Jude Law in a Wong Kar-Wai movie ought to do something to stir a young woman's wanderlust? However many copies Not Too Late sells, it's apparent that the trademark Jones style is paying diminishing returns: The new single, "Thinking About You," is a blatant "Don't Know Why"/"Sunrise" rewrite, and a rotten one. But even in the lamest songs, you can't argue with the distinctive loveliness of the voice, which still sounds like no one but Norah Jones. That's a lot more than you can say about 99 percent of the world's singers, and a lot less than you can say about the great ones."

Photo Credits:
Picture of the Norah Jones album "Not Too Late" comes courtesy of Amazon.