Norah Jones Feels Like Home CD

This deluxe edition CD/DVD set includes her 13 track album with three bonus tracks plus a DVD mixed in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround of four live tracks filmed earlier this year at the Teatro Nuevo Alcala in Madrid, two music videos, and an exclusive interview.

Personnel: Norah Jones (vocals, piano, Wurlitzer piano); Dolly Parton (vocals); Kevin Breit (guitar, acoustic guitar, banjo); Adam Levy (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, background vocals); Jesse Harris (acoustic guitar); Tony Scherr (electric guitar); Lee Alexander (lap steel guitar, double bass, bass guitar); David Gold (viola); Jane Scarpantoni (cello); Daru Oda (flute, background vocals); Garth Hudson (accordion, Hammond b-3 organ); Rob Burger (field organ); Levon Helm, Andrew Borger, Brian Blade (drums).
It may be far too obvious to even mention that Norah Jones' follow-up to her 18-million-unit-selling, eight-Grammy-winning, genre-bending, super-smash album Come Away With Me has perhaps a bit too much to live up to. But that's probably the biggest conundrum for Jones: having to follow up the phenomenal success of an album that was never designed to be so hugely popular in the first place. Come Away With Me was a little album by an unknown pianist/vocalist who attempted to mix jazz, country, and folk in an acoustic setting -- who knew? Feels Like Home could be seen as "Come Away With Me Again" if not for that fact that it's actually better. Smartly following the template forged by Jones and producer Arif Mardin, there is the intimate single "Sunrise," some reworked cover tunes, some interesting originals, and one ostensible jazz standard. These are all good things, for also like its predecessor, Feels Like Home is a soft and amiable album that frames Jones' soft-focus Aretha Franklin voice with a group of songs that are as classy as they are quiet. Granted, not unlike the dippy albeit catchy hit "Don't Know Why," they often portend deep thoughts but come off in the end more like heartfelt daydreams. Of course, Jones could sing the phone book and make it sound deep, and that's what's going to keep listeners coming back.
What's surprising here are the bluesy, more jaunty songs that really dig into the country stylings only hinted at on Come Away With Me. To these ends, the infectious shuffle of "What Am I to You?" finds Jones truly coming into her own as a blues singer as well as a writer. Her voice has developed a spine-tingling breathy scratch that pulls on your ear as she rises to the chorus. Similarly, "Toes" and "Carnival Town" -- co-written by bassist Lee Alexander and Jones -- are pure '70s singer/songwriting that call to mind a mix of Rickie Lee Jones and k.d. lang. Throw in covers of Tom Waits and Townes Van Zandt along with Duke Ellington's "Melancholia," retitled here "Don't Miss You at All" and featuring lyrics by Jones, and you've got an album so blessed with superb songwriting that Jones' vocals almost push the line into too much of a good thing. Thankfully, there is also a rawness and organic soulfulness in the production that's refreshing. No digital pitch correction was employed in the studio and you can sometimes catch Jones hitting an endearingly sour note. She also seems to be making good on her stated desire to remain a part of a band. Most all of her sidemen, who've worked with the likes of Tom Waits and Cassandra Wilson, get writing credits. It's a "beauty and the beast" style partnership that harks back to the best Brill Building-style intentions and makes for a quietly experimental and well-balanced album. ~ Matt Collar
After the unexpected runaway success of COME AWAY WITH ME, where to next? The good news about Norah Jones's sophomore effort is that she and producer Arif Mardin decided to leave well enough alone in most regards. There are no screeching guitars, thumping drum machines, or padding synthesizers, and most of the tempos are slow or laid-back--way back. Guests Garth Hudson and Levon Helm of the Band contribute to "What AmRolling Stone (3/4/04, p.62) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[A] triumph of the low-key, at once easygoing and poignant....[FEELS LIKE HOME] extends the COME AWAY WITH ME template while never echoing the earlier songs."
Spin (4/04, p.93) - "[A] better record than COME AWAY....She covers Tom Waits and Townes Van Zandt beautifully, does some cozy originals, and is brave enough to pen lyrics to a Duke Ellington theme..." - Grade: B+
Entertainment Weekly (2/13/04, p.70) - "[The] understated changes are good news; the vibe is more early Bonnie Raitt than early Sarah Vaughan." - Rating: B
Q (3/04, p.101) - 4 stars out of 5 - "[F]ar from rehashing her debut, he's made an older and wiser sequel, where the quiet magic of each song gets stronger with every listen."
Uncut (3/04, p.99) - 3 stars out of 5 - "[I]ts class is positively aristocratic."a
Mojo (Publisher) (3/04, p.92) - 4 stars out of 5 - "Just a girl singer/pianist and her Handsome Band dallying around a low-key hybrid of country, folk, pop and jazz, doing their beautiful thing."