...Featuring Norah Jones CD

...Featuring Norah Jones songs Those who find the pairing of '70s rock god Robert Plant with contemporary bluegrass queen Alison Krauss unlikely have probably not been paying attention to Plant's latter-day work, which is full of intimate, acoustic-flavored balladry. While the organic-sounding, low-key Plant/Krauss collaboration, RAISING SAND, is a far cry from Led Zeppelin's stadium rock, it offers up some hauntingly moody textures that should appeal to "Battle of Evermore" admirers. Consisting mostly of sagely chosen cover tunes, the album finds Plant and Krauss bringing their warm-but-eerie harmonies to everything from Townes Van Zandt's nihilistic folk poetry ("Nothin'") to the crumbled beauty of latter-day Tom Waits ("Trampled Rose"). Determined not to rest on their laurels or cater to expectations, the 59-year-old icon and his junior partner craft a subtle and intriguing sound built on their shared love of folk forms and gift for interpretation, bringing to light esoteric gems by late Byrds visionary Gene Clark and the Everly Brothers along the way as well.

...Featuring Norah Jones buy CD music Sade's longest absence yet did not prevent their return from being an event. It at least seemed eventful whenever "Soldier of Love," released to radio a couple months prior to the album of the same title, was heard over the airwaves. Even with its brilliantly placed lyrical allusions to hip-hop past and present and its mature sound, the single stuck out on stations aimed at teens and twentysomethings, as well as points on the dial that court an older audience. It was the most musical and organic, while also the most dramatic yet least bombastic, song in rotation. Crisp snare rolls, cold guitar stabs, and at least a dozen other elements were deployed with tremendous economy, suspensefully ricocheting off one another as Sade Adu rewrote "Love Is a Battlefield" with scarred, assured defiance. While the song was an indication of its parent album's reliance upon organic instrumentation -- the band's use of synthesized textures and programming is greatly diminished -- it merely hinted at the dark, even fatalist, depth of heartache conveyed throughout the set. On "Bring Me Home," Adu is content in resignation ("Send me to slaughter/Lay me on the railway line"), while on "The Moon and the Sky," she projects a bruised and angered bewilderment ("You lay me down and left me for the lions"). The focus at least switches temporarily to a loved one on "In Another Time," in what resembles a love letter to (what is likely) a young daughter mistreated by members of both sexes ("Their whispers are hailstones in your face"; "Soon they'll mean nothing to you"). The bleakness is tempered with themes of survival and recovery, and a song that is truly sweet ("Babyfather"). Relatable most to those who are experiencing solitude created by romantic desertion, this is not your mother's Sade album. ~ Andy Kellman Recording information: El Cortijo, Spain; Realworld Studios UK. Photographer: Sophie Muller. Personnel: Sade Adu (vocals, programming); Stuart Matthewman (guitar, saxophone, programming); Andrew Hale (keyboards, programming). Audio Mixer: Mike Pela.

...Featuring Norah Jones album for sale For a young and commercially successful artist, Norah Jones has admirably avoided playing it too safe. After scoring an unlikely sales sensation and multiple Grammy award winner with 2002's torchy COME AWAY WITH ME, Jones shifted gears slightly to accent that album's country and folk elements on the 1970s-styled follow-up, FEELS LIKE HOME. Following that, Jones deliberately played with expectations, first becoming a low-key sideman in a quirky alt-country band called the Little Willies, then playing the lead role in a new movie by Hong Kong arthouse director Wong Kar-Wai. Jones's third album, NOT TOO LATE, is perhaps not as extreme as any of those other moves away from her initial comfort zone, but it's a departure nonetheless. Recorded by Jones and longtime collaborator Lee Alexander in their home studio and featuring only self-penned material, NOT TOO LATE is far less polished than Jones's previous records, with many songs featuring little more than the singer's familiar croon, a Floyd Cramer-influenced piano, and Alexander's subtle bass. Not quite jazz, country, or pop, NOT TOO LATE fuses all of Jones's influences into an immediately identifiable whole. It's easily her most mature and personal album to date. Recording information: Brooklyn Recording, NY; The Coop, New York, NY. Photographer: Todd Chalfant. Personnel: Norah Jones (vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, pump organ, Wurlitzer organ, Mellotron); Norah Jones (Wurlitzer piano); Daru Oda (vocals, whistling, whistle); Adam Levy (vocals, electric guitar); M. Ward, Richard Julian (vocals); Tony Scherr, Robbie McIntosh (electric guitar); Lee Alexander (lap steel guitar, bass instrument); Rob Sudduth, Bill McHenry (tenor saxophone); Chuck MacKinnon (trumpet); J. Walter Hawkes (trombone); Jose Davila (tuba); Larry Goldings (organ, Hammond b-3 organ); Paul Bryan (keyboards); Jesse Harris (acoustic guitar); Kevin Breit (mandolin); Julia Kent, Jeffrey Zeigler (cello); Andrew Borger (marimba, drums, cymbals, pans); Tony Mason (drums). Audio Mixers: Tom Schick; Lee Alexander .

...Featuring Norah Jones CD music With The Fall, Norah Jones completes the transition away from her smooth cabaret beginnings and toward a mellowly arty, modern singer/songwriter. Jones began this shift on 2007's Not Too Late, an album that gently rejected her tendencies for lulling, tasteful crooning, but The Fall is a stronger, more cohesive work, maintaining an elegantly dreamy state that's faithful to the crooner of Come Away with Me while feeling decidedly less classicist. Some of this could be attributed to Jones' choice of producer, Jacquire King, best-known for his work with Modest Mouse and Kings of Leon, but King hardly pushes Norah in a rock direction; The Fall does bear some mild echoes of Fiona Apple or Aimee Mann in ballad mode, but its arrangements never call attention to themselves, the way that some Jon Brion productions do. Instead, the focus is always on Jones' voice and songs, which are once again all originals, sometimes composed in conjunction with collaborators including her longtime colleagues Jesse Harris, Ryan Adams, and Will Sheff of Okkervil River. In addition to King's pedigree, the latter two co-writers suggest a slight indie bent to Jones' direction, which isn't an inaccurate impression -- there's certainly a late-night N.Y.C. vibe to these songs -- but it's easy to overstate the artiness of The Fall, especially when compared to Not Too Late, which wore its ragged ambitions proudly. Here, Jones ties up loose ends, unafraid to sound smooth or sultry, letting in just enough dissonance and discord to give this dimension, creating a subtle but rather extraordinary low-key record that functions as a piece of mood music but lingers longer, thanks to its finely crafted songs. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine Audio Mixer: Jacquire King . Recording information: House Of David, Nashville, TN; Sunset Sound Recorders, CA; The Coop, NY; The Magic Shop, NY. Photographer: Autumn de Wilde.

...Featuring Norah Jones buy CD music Produced by Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton), Little Broken Hearts, the fifth studio album from Norah Jones, features 12 new original tracks co-written by Burton and Jones. Conceived in 2009 after a series of five fruitful sessions in Los Angeles, it wasn't until 2011, when Jones was asked to provide some vocals for Burton and Italian composer Daniele Luppi's spaghetti western project Rome, that Jones and Burton would begin the new record in earnest. Audio Mixer: Kennie Takahashi. Recording information: Electro Vox Studios, Los Angeles, CA; Mondo Studio, Los Angeles, CA; The Coop. Photographer: Frank Ockenfels III.

...Featuring Norah Jones songs Blessed is Lucinda Williams' tenth studio offering. The album was produced by Don Was with co-production from Eric Liljestrand and Tom Overby; the latter pair produced 2008's Little Honey. Like its predecessor, this one is full of guest appearances, including return cameos by Matthew Sweet, Elvis Costello (who plays a mean solo guitar on the set's fifth track "Seeing Black," written in memory of Vic Chesnutt) appears on a handful of songs, along with Rami Jaffee and Greg Leisz. The deluxe edition of the record -- both in physical (CD and LP) and digital forms -- carries a bonus disc entitled The Kitchen Tapes; the contents are the original raw demos Williams recorded while writing at her kitchen table. Recording information: Capitol studios, Los Angeles, CA. Photographer: James Minchin III. Personnel: Lucinda Williams (vocals, acoustic guitar); Greg Leisz (electric guitar, 12-string guitar, pedal steel guitar); Val McCallum (electric guitar, slide guitar, National guitar); Rami Jaffee (accordion, piano); David Sutton (upright bass, electric bass); Butch Norton (drums, percussion). Audio Mixer: Bob Clearmountain.