Ah, the drama

The Norah Jones point-counterpoint story continues.

The critics surely are in the minority. But they're a vocal minority -- a surly bunch of grumps on even the sunniest of Saturday mornings.

Ben Ratliff launched the Great Norah Jones Takedown of 2004 with a piece in The New York Times. In it he sniped that Jones's music was "sweet and blank and diffident." While not entirely dismissing Jones's "dull" music, he did charge that it was -- horror of all horrors -- making the world safe again for soft rock.

The Great Takedown? Every single report on the album I have come across in print (even the hagiographic NY Times Magazine extravaganza) or on radio (note that this article contains absolutely nothing on the music) has been hard-pressed to find much good in it. Of course, nowadays, "haters" abound, even in the pastel-coloured, non-aggressive world of Norah Jones. That said, I find some of Feels Like Home utterly charming. Is it the stuff that feeds one's soul? Not really, but it is a nice warm snack.