Customer Reviews

Not Too Late (W/Dvd) (Dlx) (Dig)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is another solid performance from one of my favorites.
I have listened to it many many times and I like it better as listen to it more. Once again we have the voice and the piano. There are a few new moves she shows us but nothing heart stopping.
At the end of the day I don't think most of us care what she sings frankly, her voice is addicting and is like a drug to us. Oh you say you wish she would sing something different and stretch her talent and grow and yada yada but most of us would listen to her no matter what she sings because you become so addicted to the voice and sound that it doesn't really matter if she is singing an old country song like Cold Cold Heart, an early rockabilly like Love Me (from the Little Willies) a Bob Dylan number or somthing of her own composition. In the end it is just the soothing that we want and that is what she does. Her music is sometimes interesting, sometimes a little boring but always soothing. Even if she is talking about a broken heart and lost love she is making us feel like with her voice to hang on to we can make it.
So I love her and listen to whatever she puts out. I am not enough of a music expert to judge her artistically, I like what I like and if it sounds good to me I say it is good. Norah..you are as good as it gets.

Like her 2004 sophomore effort, "Feels Like Home," Norah Jones' latest maintains the sound that brought her national acclaim while still furthering her artistic endeavors.

"Not Too Late" proves she is not given to relying on a cash- cow formula; she not only continues to add inflections of country like last time around, but she eschews the American songbook in favor of a uniformly original array of songs -- all of which she co-wrote. This aids the record's warm, intimate atmosphere, which glimmers and glows despite the absence of the late legendary producer, Arif Mardin.

The slinky blues of "Thinking About You" is the ideal lead single. With its plaintive melody, organic jazz horns and restrained yet expressive vocals, it is musical chocolate cake. "Sinkin' Soon," meanwhile, is the most perplexing track. With its curious lyrics ("Like the oyster crack in the stew/The honey in the tea/Like the wheel of cheese high in the sky/We're gonna be sinkin' soon), the song sways and jerks with Jesse Harris (writer of her monster hit "Don't Know Why") on banjo and drummer Andy Borger working pots and pans. It continues the theme of fame's fickle nature that began with "Carnival Town" on her last LP.

In spite of her popularity with white collar right-wingers, Jones is not afraid to infuse her music with passionate liberal beliefs. With its lush, nervous mix of pianos and guitars, "Wish I Could" is the story of a lonely war widow and even lonelier other woman ("She says love in the time of war's not fair/He was my man but they didn't care/I don't tell her that I once loved you too"), while "Broken" finds a soldier irrevocably hardened by war ("He's got blood on his shoes and mud on his brim/Did he do it to himself or was it done to him?").

"My Dear Country," with a cabaretlike interlude, waxes on a terrifying election and a "deranged" politician without naming names:

"I cherish you my dear country/I love all the things that you've given me/And most of all that I am free/To have a song that I can sing/On election day."

The soothing "Wake Me Up" appropriately follows with its resigned, world-weary attitude, bringing in sounds of the heartland that continue in "Rosie's Lullaby" and the fun-loving "Be My Somebody," the latter marked by cheeky lyrics: "Last night was a record to be broken/It broke all over the kitchen floor."

"Little Room" attempts to shed her fuddy-duddy image with sexual undertones, while "Not My Friend" finds her safe in her own company -- not content to maintain a relationship with someone who wishes her unhappiness.

"The Sun Doesn't Like You" and "Until the End" are full of grace and character, and "Not Too Late" closes the disc with spare piano/vocal simplicity. Its optimistic message provides a perfect conclusion and its overwhelmingly pristine melody makes it an instant classic.

If "Come Away With Me" was rich, delicious comfort food, "Not Too Late" is more complex and sophisticated. Making artistic leaps and bounds, Jones proves that she is not a Grammy guzzler laughing all the way to the bank -- she is an artist's artist.

This limited-edition version contains a DVD jam-packed with goodies, most notably the eye-popping video for "Sinkin' Soon," while iTunes has an exclusive alternate version of the aforementioned track available.

I love the CD. It's one of my new favorites! However, I paid extra to get the DVD and I wished I hadn't. It's nothing too exciting. Has some music videos and interviews, but not worth the extra money.

The music is what you get on the unenhanced CD, vintage Norah with several of her best tracks yet. My favorite is 'The Sun Doesn't Like You' - very dark, threatening, totally non-specific, with this really neat strong music (vocal and instrumental).

I hoped for one or two different songs on the DVD (you get that on her first DVD), but that doesn't happen. I'm not a great fan of videos. These are far better than most (visual quality, concept, execution), but I'd have been happier with more of the rehearsal footage,or small-house concert ...

And I'm picky.

Whether folk, country, jazz, pop, or whatever music style she pleases, I will listen. She has the curiosity and imagination to travel to these areas and beyond. This is the voyage of a musician that is gifted with a conscience possesion of her own naivete. Her minimalist piano and guitar virtuosity is the canvas for the delivery of her exceptionally pure art. Telling glimpses of her life, thought, and truth seasoned with dreamy fairy tales of moonbeams and lullabies. She does all of this and more, with a voice that is the sexual-audible equivalent only comparable to Emmy Lou Harris, Dolly Parton, or Diana Krall. I hope she still throws in the classical tune now and then, and doesn't feel pressured into creating all her own new material.

I loved Norah's first album, her second was good, but not as good, the third had me wondering and this last album is a real disappointment. I think Norah believes she has to have dark and somber themes in order to be considered a serious artist, but her strength lies in her soothing, comforting, sensuous, "wrap me in a warm blanket" voice, which is largely absent from this work.

I can not help but give her 5 stars on any recording of her... her vocals are sesually perfect... the music is soothing and stunning... one of the most artistic women on any music sceen... the Bonus DVD is a plus the videos have a unique artistic quality...but watching her live is alway the real bonus...she ain't no studio trick...Norah Jones is the Real thing!!!

Most every track on this CD is fantastic. I highly recommend it!!! Keep up the good work Norah!!!

This CD came out just in time. The DVD isn't as good, I could do without it.

I think it's a great well done CD and a nice DVD that came along with it.