Norah Jones
★★★★
Visions
BLUE NOTE. CD/DL/LP
Multi-Grammy-winning singer/songwriter finds joy in musical rebirth.
Don’t try to second-guess Norah Jones. Just when you think you’ve got her figured out, she’ll reinvent herself, as she did with 2009’s The Fall, which showed her grittier side, and 2012’s Little Broken Hearts, an experimental hook-up with producer Danger Mouse. Her ninth album, Visions, her most unpredictable yet, is a fruitful collaboration with producer Leon Michels, best known for his work with soul revivalists Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. Helped by Michels, whose grainy lo-fi production exudes a ramshackle charm, Jones has rediscovered her mojo, proving there’s life after 2020’s Pick Me Up Off The Floor, her joyless mid-life crisis album. Defined by the vibrant garage band rawness of Staring At The Wall, featuring Jones’s jangly guitar and the incantatory I’m Awake with its “Fly a kite all your life, don’t let go, it will be all right” refrain, Visions suggests Jones has successfully exorcised her demons.