by Michael McKinney
Rating: 5 / 10
Norah Jones started her career established firmly in the background. Come Away With Me established her, fairly or not, as a vocalist with tunes perfect for quiet parties or coffee shops but not much else, one armed with an immaculate rhythm section and eight Grammy Awards. She later dipped her toes into country, collaborated with OutKast, and contributed to spaghetti-western pseudo-soundtracks, but always held on to those calm vocal-jazz roots. Day Breaks, then, feels like a comfortable return. It’s Jones doing what she does best, with contributions from Wayne Shorter, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Brian Blade all creating a sublime backdrop for her to float over.
And it truly does have wonderful moments scattered throughout. The opener sets the record’s tone perfectly, with gorgeous orchestration, arrangement, and sonics: muted saxophone, drums that are feathered rather than struck, light bass and piano with Jones running the show. Elsewhere, the title track features a similarly subdued groove, with guitar pulses offering a welcome change of pace. The organ on “Flipside” helps to drive it forward, while it offers excellent texture to “Carry On.” Beyond that level, though, the record’s an audial treat throughout: comfortable solos, great use of brushes and tasteful horn sections make for a package stuffed with wonderful sounds.
Ultimately, though, Day Breaks largely comes off as a bit of a wash: she may be too comfortable here, with nearly every track providing perfect wallpaper – functional but not evocative, proficient but not excellent, scene-setting but not engaging in the least. Of course, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing – but it is a limiting one. It’s hard to imagine being offended by the record, but it’s also tough to imagine many situations when you’d want to put it on. It’s an album that feels like it wants to be put in the background, like Jones designed it to check all the boxes her wildly-successful debut did.
But it doesn’t always pull that level of inoffensiveness and universality off right, either – she’s liable to toss a too-charged lyric or too-involved story (on Neil Young cover “Don’t Be Denied”), keeping this from working thoroughly as background music. And whenever it moves into a higher gear – the saxophone on the closing track, Wayne Shorter on “Peace,” the unusual urgency of “Flipside” – it feels anxious, uncomfortable, eager to return to its stride. These aren’t bad tracks or even moments, but they do feel ripped from a collection of B-sides, thematically speaking; it’s an issue of placement, not playing.
All things considered, it’s a perfectly acceptable vocal jazz record, with indelible sonics scattered throughout, Jones’ voice as excellent as ever, and a mostly-consistent atmosphere. But it ultimately plays too carefully: just as nothing feels offensively bad, very little comes off as truly excellent. It could be transportive – if played -in precisely the right setting, if a bit of the fat was trimmed, if the focus was further narrowed to one mindset. As it stands, though, it’s both well-done and completely forgettable.
FCC: Clean
RIYL: Diana Krall, Katie Melua, Alanis Morissette, Sarah Vaughan
Favorite Tracks: 1, 3, 7, 11
