Album Review: "The Fall" (Norah Jones)

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It was 2007 when Norah Jones last released an album. However by then she had taken the world by storm with her velvet-smooth voice and jazz songs. This year, Norah Jones is back and while the velvet-smooth voice remains, her overall sound is a lot more different with her latest release, "The Fall."

Don't be alarmed though, it's not like Jones just dropped the piano and started a rapping career, though that would be very intriguing. The change in direction of sound just incorporates the use of more instruments and give it full band, contemporary rock sound to it. Norah's signature voice is still the attention-grabber here.

If you are familiar with the country side-project Jones did in 2006 called The Little Willies, and you liked it, you will enjoy that she brings more of her love for country music to "The Fall." "You've Ruined Me" prominently sounds as such  which I swear to you has a Neko Case vibe to it and one can only imagine what a great duo Neko Case and Norah Jones would make.

Other standout tracks are "Back to Manhattan," "Man of the Hour," and "Chasing Pirates." With "Back To Manhattan," the song sounds like a follow-up to either the songs "Thinking About You" or "Not Too Late," both of which were on her album before this and with the rest of the album having new sounds and a different Norah, is as close as you'll get to the "old-school" Norah Jones that most people are familiar with. "Man Of The Hour" is an ode to her dog and really, if Norah Jones wanted to write a song about her dog, who are we to tell her that she couldn't?

I don't think Norah Jones is abandoning the jazz that got her noticed. With "The Fall," she just simply evolving her sound and incorporating other styles of music that she likes and seeing how it works. Overall it works very well. At first listen you'll probably think that this isn't a Norah Jones album at all because there are drums and guitars, but once you hear the lyrics of Jones, it'll all come back to familiar territory. Fans of Norah Jones won't be disappointed with her latest.

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