Norah Jones: Little Broken Hearts

Sonically sparse and emotionally raw, the twelve ballads on Little Broken Hearts drift through a stark-blue landscape strewn with heartache, disappointment, and despair. Teaming up with producer Danger Mouse (Black Keys, Gnarls Barkley), singer and songwriter Norah Jones has spent three years crafting a complex song cycle that, while challenging, is fiercely honest. Backed at times by little more than a murmur of twangy guitars and a wisp of ethereal synth or strings, Jones caresses these lyrics as she takes the listener through her fall from grace with some invisible lovers. These songs don’t seethe with anger, but rather often drift with a sense of resignation, echoing a sense that “here I go again,” as she sighs in “Say Goodbye.” This haunting album isn’t easy listening, especially if you’re expecting the promise of Jones’ “Come Away with Me.” But a decade after that song spurred multi- platinum, multi-Grammy success, the beautiful despair of Little Broken Hearts finds that Jones has slipped through the looking glass and come back with a clear-eyed view of the sometimes painful vagaries of love.