On her just-released fourth album, The Fall, Norah Jones not only has switched to a more contemporary rock sound but, judging from the lyrics, a broken heart too.
The singer/songwriter/pianist split with her longtime boyfriend and backing-band bassist, Lee Alexander, at Christmas 2007, so one might assume she’s writing about him.
But the 30-year-old Jones, who has sold 36 million albums worldwide and won eight Grammys since her 2002 breakthrough debut CD Come Away With Me, says the subject matter is about a variety of things.
“There’s a lot of stuff on the album lyrically that just kind of deals with falling in love, falling out of love, falling and picking yourself back up, all kinds of stuff,” Jones said down the line from New York City.
“A lot of the stuff is very personal, and some of it that might sound personal, isn’t personal. That’s the way songwriting goes. You take your emotions and sometimes you exaggerate things for the sake of the song. Sometimes you’re talking about your best friend breaking up with (her) boyfriend.”
The Fall is also a sonic departure from the poppy jazz Jones for which Jones became famous. The daughter of sitar master Ravi Shankar, Jones plays more guitar and Wurlitzer electric keyboards on this one, in collaboration with new producer Jacquire King (Kings of Leon, Modest Mouse and Tom Waits).
“I’ve always written on guitar, but it’s only recently I’ve been playing more guitar,” Jones said. “I have a couple of bands in New York I’ve been playing with, so I was more comfortable playing the parts myself. There’s some piano on the record, but there’s a lot of Wurlitzer electric keyboard too. I’m definitely not as familiar with the guitar. My language with the guitar is super limited. And when I’m on piano, it’s more like an extension of my voice. I can really improvise on the piano because it’s completely familiar to me.”
King was responsible for assembling a new band for Jones in the studio, players with major rock cred. They include drummers Joey Waronker (Beck, R.E.M.) and James Gadson (Bill Withers), keyboardist James Poyser (Erykah Badu, Al Green) and guitarists Marc Ribot (Tom Waits, Elvis Costello) and Smokey Hormel (Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer).
Jones wrote with both mercurial rocker and friend Ryan Adams — whose “wild creativity” she describes as “a fountain” — and frequent collaborator Jesse Harris.
“I think it was just time for me to (make changes),” Jones said. “At the end of my last tour ... it just seemed natural for (my band and I) to go in all different directions. I had already written all of these songs, and so when I was demo-ing some of them, it just felt like they needed something different.
“So once we started adding different ideas that we’d never really done before, it just felt right. So I just decided to go further in that direction and find the right producer to help me really shake it up a little. I really just wanted heavier drum grooves, and rock wasn’t really the word that came to mind. It was more like phat beats with a ‘ph.’”
The Fall debuted at No. 3 on the album charts in Canada and the U.S. this week. Jones arrives in Canada on Dec. 9 for a promotional visit that includes appearances on CTV’s Canada AM that day, and on CBC-TV’s The Hour the next.
Jones said she won’t start a proper tour of clubs and small theatres until March. Fans can expect her to play piano, Wurlitzer electric keyboards and guitar, she said.
“It’s going to be fun, and it’ll make for some nice variety, I think,” she said.
Turning 30
Norah Jones turned 30 earlier this year, celebrating the milestone with pizza and beer at a bowling party in Brooklyn with her best friend and band member Sasha Dobson, whose 30th birthday was the next day.
Four albums into her career, which exploded with her Grammy-winning, multi-platinum 2002 debut Come Away From Me, Jones said she finally has confidence as a songwriter.
“I’m kind of over that whole, ‘Well, I don’t know why I had such big success?’ (concern),” Jones said. “Now it’s like, ‘Well, I’m just going to go with it.’ I still don’t know why, but obviously something about what I do appeals to some people.”
So maybe the moniker of “Snorah” Jones will finally be banished, what with her more contemporary sounding new album, The Fall?
“When you become very successful, there’s a lot of backlash. And so if you’re not completely confident and secure, it’s kind of like you get confused,” Jones said. “So, I think for me it’s just taken growing up a little and realizing, ‘You know what? That’s the way it is for everybody.’ There are always detractors, and you just do what you do and do it honestly. And that’s all that matters.’”
