The Return of the Queen

A Norah Jones ain't-she-modest hagiography. The main interest of the article is that you can listen to "Sunrise," her new single. Sounds more produced than anything on Come Away With Me (cf. the vocal arrangements) and less catchy than "Don't Know Why." Among all the touchy-feely stuff, there's only one comment on the album itself:

And, in fact, some of the songs were truly gorgeous. But overall an alt-country orthodoxy seemed to rule: it was heavy on the twang, light on the torch.

A thought that crosses my mind, after having done a lot of listening to Cassandra Wilson's latest album, Glamoured, also on Blue Note: Jones is kind of like a white version of Wilson. Jones uses a lot of the same elements as Wilson (acoustic guitar, percussion), at least on "Sunrise" and both have a kind of cross-over, genre-hopping appeal (Jones's being much bigger, obviously).

Tangentially, it's painful to hear the article's author Rob Hoerburger refer to Blue Note as a boutique jazz label.