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The Blue Note has been responsible since 1939 for compiling the best jazz catalog available. Recording for this current branch of EMI is a true guarantee mark. If that wasn't enough, sometimes the DNA itself can vouch for an artist. And if that genetic heritage was passed on to you by someone named Ravi Shankar, well, everything adds up. And if you add to this a lot of healthy stage experience, between music academy in Texas and the venues of Greenwich Village in New York, then you might think that all the ingredients are there to record some excellent music. Norah Jones is all this and perhaps even more.
A musical talent built over time, without burning bridges. She founded her band (which was later expanded and renamed "Handsome") with bassist Lee Alexander, guitarist Jesse Harris, and drummer Dianno Rieser. In 2001, "First Sessions" was released, an EP featuring six tracks, four of which would appear on this debut album the following year. Purists of the genre will say that it's not jazz. Many will claim, with the usual holier-than-thou attitude, that this album is shamefully commercial. Let's say it right away, we are not in front of Billie Holiday or even the queen of "Scat," Ella Fitzgerald. We are facing a young woman who, with much effort, managed to put together a series of well-crafted pieces, to masterfully interpret the pieces written for her by Harris and Alexander, and to reinterpret, even reinvent, as in the case of Hank Williams' "Cold, Cold Heart," the three covers present on the album. Norah's crystal-clear talent is audible in every track of an album that reaches its peak in songs like "Don't Know Why" (written for her by Jesse Harris), "Lonestar" (written by Lee Alexander), the alluring "Nightingale," and especially "Come Away with me," perhaps, to date, the most beautiful track she has ever written herself. A soothing, "nocturnal" voice that manages to be both intense and sweet. An album that is a godsend for all compilers of romantic comedy soundtracks, because that is what it is, a collection of romantic songs.
We are not in the presence of a jazz masterpiece (although the sales of this album, which quickly entered the Top 40 of the best-selling albums of all time, will allow the aforementioned purists to continue enjoying Blue Note's work), but it doesn't matter; this is a very enjoyable album, to listen to in the evening, perhaps keeping the volume in the background. Norah manages to thrill, in an era of dummies artificially constructed to sell, she is the product of herself and her class, never vulgar, never over the top. The music (it may please or not... it's a matter of taste), with her, is always in the first place. She will never again reach the compositional heights of this album, which will remain the best of her decade-long production. Every work she produces will have as a common denominator a style and a taste that are absolutely refined, and an excellent knowledge of the best North American musical tradition, from jazz to folk, and even passing through blues. Her indisputable preparation will lead her to search, even in this musical heritage of hers, for always new solutions (sometimes successful, sometimes less so). To those who need only a cover face, endless legs, and a stunning tan to stay at the top of sales charts, Norah responds with music, and that alone!
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Don't Know Why (03:10)
I waited 'til I saw the sun?
I don't know why I didn't come
I left you by the house of fun
I don't know why I didn't come
I don't know why I didn't come
When I saw the break of day
I wished that I could fly away
Instead of kneeling in the sand
Catching teardrops in my hand
My heart is drenched in wine
You'll be on my mind
Forever
Out across the endless sea
I would die in ecstasy
But I'll be a bag of bones
Driving down the road alone
My heart is drenched in wine
You'll be on my mind
Forever
Something has to make you run
I don't know why I didn't come
I feel as empty as a drum
I don't know why I didn't come
I don't know why I didn't come
I don't know why I didn't come
02 Seven Years (02:29)
Spinning, laughing, dancing to
her favorite song
A little girl with nothing wrong
Is all alone
Eyes wide open
Always hoping for the sun
And she'll sing her song to anyone
that comes along
Fragile as a leaf in autumn
Just fallin' to the ground
Without a sound
Crooked little smile on her face
Tells a tale of grace
That's all her own
Fragile as a leaf in autumn
Just fallin' to the ground
Without a sound
Spinning, laughing, dancing to
her favorite song
She's a little girl with nothing wrong
And she's all alone
A little girl with nothing wrong
And she's all alone
03 Cold Cold Heart (03:42)
I've tried so hard my dear to show that you're my every dream
Yet you're afraid each thing I do is just some evil scheme
A memory from your lonesome past keeps us so far apart
Why can't I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart
Another love before my time made your heart sad and blue
And so my heart is paying now for things I didn't do
In anger unkind words I said that make the teardrops start
Why can't I free your doubtful mind and melt your cold cold heart
There was a time when I believed that you belonged to me
But now I know your heart is shackled to a memory
The more I learn to care for you the more we drift apart
Why can't I free your doubtful mind, and melt your cold cold heart
04 Feelin' the Same Way (03:01)
The sun just slipped its note below my door
And I can't hide beneath my sheets
I've read the words before so now I know
The time has come again for me
And I'm feelin' the same way all over again
Feelin' the same way all over again
Singin' the same lines all over again
No matter how much I pretend
Another day that I can't find my head
My feet don't look like they're my own
I'll try and find the floor below to stand
And I hope I reach it once again
And I'm feelin' the same way all over again
Feelin' the same way all over again
Singin' the same lines all over again
No matter how much I pretend
So many times I wonder where I've gone
And how I found my way back in
I look around awhile for something lost
Maybe I'll find it in the end
And I'm feelin' the same way all over again
Feelin' the same way all over again
Singin' the same lines all over again
No matter how much I pretend
05 Come Away With Me (03:22)
Come away with me in the night
Come away with me
And I will write you a song
Come away with me on a bus
Come away where they can't tempt us
With their lies
And I wanna walk with you
On a cloudy day
In fields where the yellow grass grows knee-high
So won't you try to come
Come away with me and we'll kiss
On a mountain top
Come away with me
And I'll never stop loving you
I wanna wake up with the rain
Falling on a tin roof
While I'm safe there in your arms
So all I ask is for you
To come away with me in the night
Come away with me
06 Shoot the Moon (03:58)
The summer days are gone too soon
You shoot the moon
And miss completely
And now you're left to face the gloom
The empty room that once smelled sweetly
Of all the flowers you plucked if only
You knew the reason
Why you had to each be lonely
Was it just the season?
And now the fall is here again
You can't begin to give in
It's all over
When the snows come rolling through
You're rolling too with some new lover
Will you think of times you told me
That you knew the reason
Why we had to each be lonely
It was just the season
Will you think of times you told me
That you knew the reason
Why we had to each be lonely
It was just the season
07 Turn Me On (02:39)
Like a flower, waiting to bloom
Like a lightbulb in a dark room
I'm just sittin' here
Waiting for you
To come on home
and turn me on
Like the desert
Waiting for the rain
Like a school kid
Waiting for the spring
I'm just sittin' here
Waiting for you
To come on home
And turn me on
My poor heart
It's been so dark
Since you've been gone
After all you're the one who turns me off
But you're the only one who can turn me back on
My hi-fi is waiting for a new tube
My glass is waiting for some fresh ice-cubes
I'm just sittin' here
Waiting for you
To come on home
And turn me on
Turn me on
08 Lonestar (03:10)
Lonestar, where are you out tonight?
This feeling i'm trying to fight
It's dark and i think that i
Would give anything
For you to shine down on me
How far you are
I just don't know
The distance i'm willing to go
I pick up a stone that i cast to the sky
Hoping for some kind of sign.
09 I've Got to See You Again (04:17)
Lines on your face don't bother me
Down in my chair when you dance over me
I can't help myself
I've got to see you again
Late in the night when I'm all alone
And I look at the clock and I know you're not home
I can't help myself
I've got to see you again
I could almost go there
Just to watch you be seen
I could almost go there
Just to live in a dream
But no I won't go for any of those things
To not touch your skin is not why I sing
I can't help myself
I've got to see you again
I could almost go there
Just to watch you be seen
I could almost go there
Just to live in a dream
No I won't go to share you with them
But oh even though I know where you've been
I can't help myself
I've got to see you again
10 Painter Song (02:46)
If I were a painter
I would paint my reverie
If that's the only way for you to be with me
We'd be there together
Just like we used to be
Underneath the swirling skies for all to see
And I'm dreaming of a place
Where I could see your face
And I think my brush would take me there
But only....
If I were a painter
And could paint a memory
I'd climb inside the swirling skies to be with you
I'd climb inside the skies to be with you
12 Nightingale (04:12)
Nightingale
Sing us a song
Of a love that once belonged
Nightingale
Tell me your tale
Was your journey far too long?
Does it seem like I'm looking for an answer
To a question I can't ask
I don't know which way the feather falls
Or if I should blow it to the left
Nightingale
Sing us a song
Of a love that once belonged
Nightingale
Tell me your tale
Was your journey far too long?
All the voices that are spinnin' around me
Trying to tell me what to say
Can I fly right behind you
And you can take me away
...you can take me away
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