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Sound Reviews
New adventures in pop with Norah Jones and Devendra Banhart
By Troy Farah
Published on 01/07/2010
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Artist: Norah Jones
Album: The Fall
Rating: 3/5
Norah Jones, best known for her jazz vocals tinged with country, folk and mellow piano, is an unconventional pop musician. She doesn’t have that plastic, mass-produced hollowness dominating the radio. So it’s quite a surprise that on her fourth album, The Fall, Jones has forgone her signature sound for a more upbeat, contemporary feel. She rebuilt her backing band from the ground up, employing musicians who have worked with mainstream acts from Beck to R.E.M. to Tom Waits.
Even with this much chemistry and new direction, The Fall doesn’t evolve beyond flaccid background music. Perhaps it’s because Jones traded her lead instrument, the piano, for an acoustic guitar, attempting to knead out some more groovy tracks. Maybe the problem stems from trying to be more like her contemporaries and, regrettably, the idea falls flat more often than not.
The album is built upon the whimsical, sentimental memories of some (evidently) repressed childhood dreams that are now clashing with the roughness of modern living. On “Chasing Pirates,” the record’s bubbly opener, Jones is doing little more than playing dress up.
The excitement and romance feels too half-heartedly constructed to head anywhere deep. Even Jones’ collaboration with Ryan Adams on “Light as Feather” is so lackluster it only induces a yawn or two. Jones no longer feels wistful and free; now she’s content to complain about her relationship problems and it’s hard to care.
But The Fall still has its strong points, sometimes in surprising places. “You’ve Ruined Me” perfectly captures the remorse of lost love in reserved ways many modern female pop artists neglect. Jones returns to the jazz strengths she has on “Back To Manhattan,” another sultry breakup song. “It’s Gonna Be” is Jones’ retaliation at our current angry celebrity media, one that raises up a “princess” as Jones says, only to “stone her on a talk show.”
These tracks seem out of place with The Fall’s less reflexive theme and probably won’t be made into chart-topping hits, let alone make up for the limp, laziness that keeps The Fall from becoming memorable. Norah Jones is one of the most important artists of this past decade; unfortunately, she chose the worst recording to close out the last 10 years.
Artist: Devendra Banhart
Album: What Will We Be
Rating: 3.5/5
Super freakazoid Devendra Banhart is notorious for his indie “freak folk” style, mashed with bizarre, non-sequitor poetry over sleepy acoustic guitar strumming. But along with signing to a major label, Banhart’s latest studio album, What Will We Be, seems to mark the end of Banhart’s association with his stereotypes. The charming little weirdo is evolving—in equally good and bad ways.
What Will We Be comes to a jolting start with “Can’t Help But Smiling,” which gets bouncy but never gains steam. “Angelika” picks up the slack, sounding whimsically romantic, then changes midway into a lively Spanish mantra and finishes off with a “Here Comes The Sun” style riff.
About midway through “Baby,” any longtime fan of Devendra will start to wonder, “Haven’t I heard this song before?” In some places on What Will We Be, the chords and pace are far too reminiscent of 2007’s Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Mountain and other previous releases. But What Will We Be has a different edge, like Banhart is entering the real world but is keeping his child-like aspirations.
Banhart shelved singing too much about animals (the bass heavy “Rats” being the only exception), which is a somewhat neutral change. For the few tracks, such as “16th and Valencia, Roxy Music” that have an energized pace, Banhart has ditched the romantic narratives and signature storytelling for a more “party time!” vibe. This is either because Banhart is too burnt out from his recent breakup with Natalie Portman (in fact, he seems to completely ignore her) or pressures from Warner/Reprise Records. But either way, it cheapens the album as a whole.
Normally, Banhart’s lyrical fantasies are wonderfully amusing and childish, yet not in an immature way. He simply embraced nonsense in a Dr. Suess-like way and went with it. These days, no one quite captures the spirit of free-range hippies like Banhart does.
So why did Banhart sacrifice that on What Will We Be? It’s almost like the album is incomplete. Banhart is in the cocoon stage and will soon emerge as something greater than he was before. Devendra Banhart is creative in an almost absentminded-professor sense. Hopefully, that spirit won’t be taken away as he moves in new directions.
Additional photos for this story:
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