Norah Jones Releases New CD "Little Broken Hearts"

I fell in love with Norah Jones' voice years ago when I first heard the song Don't Know Why. Now, ten years later since her debut album Come Away With Me was released, Norah has a new CD called Little Broken Hearts that's set to delight her fans anew.

Little Broken Hearts has 12 tracks and features the gently rolling first single Happy Pills. I attended an advanced listening session the other day in PolyEast Records' office and my fellow attendees and I found ourselves already LSS'ing on the song after watching the video a couple of times.

The album, which contains original songs co-written by Norah and Danger Mouse (a.k.a. Brian Burton), is said to be the fascinating next step in the artistic evolution of one of the most intriguing singers to be discovered in the last 10 years. Together, the two have combined their highly personal styles to come up with an entirely new sound. They have previously collaborated on Danger Mouse's acclaimed 2011 album ROME, a valentine to classic Italian film score music that also featured Jack White.

Norah said she drew the inspiration for her album cover from the vintage movie posters that adorn Brian's Los Angeles studio. "Brian has this great collection of Russ Meyer posters ... and this particular one, called Mudhoney, was right over the couch where I sat every day. I always was looking at it and thinking 'that's so cool I want to look like her!' I remember staring at the poster the whole time we made the record. It's a great visual."

Danger Mouse and Norah Jones

The duo worked in Danger Mouse's studio the past fall to finish what they begun. All songs were created from the ground up with both Norah and Brian sharing all the songwriting credits and performing the majority of the instrumental parts; Norah on piano, keyboards, bass, and guitar, and Brian contributing drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, and string instruments.

Those who were already fans of Norah Jones must have known that she first emerged in the music industry in February 2002 when her self-described "moody little record" Come Away with Me was released. The album introduced a singular new voice and grew into a global phenomenon. It has swept the 2003 Grammy Awards and signaled a paradigm shift away from the then prevailing synthetic pop music of the time. Come Away With Me has sold 25 million copies worldwide and has just become the #10 best-selling album of the Soundscan era.

Since that first record, Norah has released three more critically acclaimed and commercially successful solo albums -- Feels Like Home (2004), Not Too Late (2007), and The Fall (2009) -- as well as two albums with her country collective The Little Willies. There was also the 2010 compilation ... Featuring Norah Jones that showed her voice's versatility as heard in collaborations with artists as diverse as Willie Nelson, Outkast, Herbie Hancock, and Foo Fighters.

According to American Songwriter Magazine, "Little Broken Hearts may be the most dramatic and rewarding departure she's made in her career. Burton plies an imaginative panoply of '60s elements -- French pop, psych rock, and soundtrack compositions."

This latest album from Blue Note/EMI will be released in the Philippines by PolyEast Records starting today, May 2, 2012.