Not Too Late |  | Artist: Norah Jones
Label: Blue Note
Category: Music
List Price: $18.98
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Rating:  368 reviews
Sales Rank: 1551
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.4
MPN: 74516
UPC: 094637451625
EAN: 0094637451625
ASIN: B000KCHZK6
Release Date: January 30, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Wish I Could | | • | Sinkin' Soon | | • | The Sun Doesn't Like You | | • | Until The End | | • | Not My Friend | | • | Thinking About You | | • | Broken | | • | My Dear Country | | • | Wake Me Up | | • | Be My Somebody | | • | Little Room | | • | Rosie's Lullaby | | • | Not Too Late |
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Product Description
No Description Available.
Genre: Popular Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 30-JAN-2007
Amazon.com
Although the music of Norah Jones continues to blend pop, soul, folk, and country with a seasoning of jazz, her third album for Blue Note is the first where she's written (or collaborated on) all the material. Beneath the smooth surface lie darker strains on the album-opening "Wish I Could" (about a boyfriend lost to war), intimations of mortality in "The Sun Doesn't Like You," and the post-election horrors of "My Dear Country." The last seems to channel the inspiration of Brecht/Weill, while the equally bleak "Sinkin' Soon" is set to a jaunty Dixieland rag. Throughout, Jones's vocal intimacy and melodic warmth remain as disarmingly understated as ever. The soulful "Thinking of You," the countryish "Wake Me Up," and the syncopated "Be My Somebody" reflect the captivating style of her previous work. Although too much in the same midtempo mode becomes a dreamy lull, cut by cut, Jones's voice is irresistible. --Don McLeese
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 368
 Languid and dreamy, a dash of smoky, sultry cabaret.... March 5, 2007
Amskeating
75 out of 78 found this review helpful
While the first two albums were dominated by covers, "Not Too Late" is all solo or co-written original material.
It's not startling, as these songs continue her pop-meets-country with a dash of smoky cabaret style. Nor is it exactly revelatory. Firstly her life, apart from the fame, has been remarkably normal and uneventful and lyrically the new material is mostly observational. ("I have a wonderful boyfriend. So how am I going to write a tortured break-up song? My life is really good and I don't want to ruin it just for a good song.").
Still, there are a few pointed lines about misplaced love and even some mild political commentary in "My Dear Country".
The album has its share of strong tracks, like the Dylanesque "Wish I Could", with its unexpected half-note elisions, or the trad-jazzy Tom Waits-like "Sinkin' Soon", or the haunting, whimsical, cello-darkened "Broken".
The mood is mostly dreamy, lazy country-rockers, quirky waltzes, a little earthy bluesiness and bits of laid-back funk, and there's even a demurely delivered anti-Bush song.
Jones's voice, always more characterful than the easy-listening tag ever implied, sometimes shifts to a strange place between Madeleine Peyroux's or Diane Krall's jazzy smokiness and the sultry, jazz/soul balladry a la Billie Holiday..
But Norah's and partner Lee Alexander's tunes need to improve if the singer isn't to retreat to covering classics again, as she almost certainly will. It's pretty music (though the sugary " Little Room" gets to tooth-twinge point), beautifully performed.
But Norah Jones has more to offer than this, and the needs of the EMI boardroom probably won't help her find it.
 Lovingly crafted and sweetly sung. March 11, 2007
gizgoogmai (London, England UK)
78 out of 85 found this review helpful
Norah Jones's first two albums sold some 17 million and 10 million copies respectively, the kind of diminishing returns that even the flintiest of record company accountants can accept.
Whether that level can be sustained with "Not Too Late" remains to be seen, but the subtle changes to her style here seem like a shrewd attempt to expand artistically without disturbing her core audience, most of whom will still be in the long, deep sleep triggered by her previous albums, anyway.
That lullaby effect continues here - there's even a song called "Rosie's Lullaby" - but it's what's happening at the fringes of the record that's most interesting: things like the unusually intimate string arrangement created by The Kronos Quartet for "Broken", and the New Orleans rumba-rock undercarriage to "Be My Somebody", and its snaking slide-guitar break with the faintest of scorched edges.
There are still plenty of languid cabaret shuffles, piano ballads and neutered blues, but few are as effective as "Sinkin' Soon", where Norah's joined by the simpatico M Ward on a stalking cakewalk of banjo, piano and sleazy muted trumpet.
The highlights of this album, in my opinion , are: "Sinkin' Soon", "Be My Somebody", "Broken".
The smooth-singing siren tiptoes toward a slightly younger demographic. March 22, 2007
peterhoof (London, UK)
42 out of 44 found this review helpful
Studio album number three from Norah Jones is sweet, beautiful, a little bit sad, a little bit happy, immaculately played and exquisitely sung in that gorgeous voice: a warm and charming collection of songs in the styles with which Jones has become associated - blues, jazz, folk, country, soul.
And it's also just a little bit dull.
You don't come to a Norah Jones album expecting visceral death-metal thrills, but even so, sometimes her music would be more satisfying if she would take us on a few more ups and downs, let her voice crackle with emotion.
The tender, soulful ballad "Until the End" would have been the perfect opportunity to do this, but the moment when she grabs hold of a phrase and runs with it: it never happens.
Still, there's plenty to admire here, not least the restrained musicianship, and the tender, timeless songs themselves, all written or co-written by Jones.
But mostly there's that voice - strikingly pure, utterly flawless.
Less is more. March 1, 2007
Esthero
59 out of 64 found this review helpful
Grammy Award-winning 2002 debut "Come Away With Me" (20 million copies sold worldwide and still counting), and the follow-up "Feels Like Home".
This (her third) album offers us basically more of the same - 13 songs about wistful love, sunsets and daydreaming, aimed squarely at the middle-of-the-road Jazz-lite listener..
It's another collection of intimate, languorous songs which shocase Norah's seductive vocal talent.
Jones wrote all of the songs on this album, apparently, including the recently released single "Thinking About You".
As with previous records, Norah's famed voice (variously described as "sultry" and "sleep-inducing") is the main draw on this album, as she plods away at the keyboard until it's all over.
She and her stripped vocal and musical style hearken back to a past time - back when music was allowed to emote and when instruments were played by actual, real, live humans with blood and guts and stuff.
The Grammy connoisseur's third album continues her exploration of pop, jazz, soul, folk and country in a manner that hasn't been done since Nina Simone was rightfully cursing out audiences who dared to talk during any one of her rapt performances.
Like her predecessor -- with whom she shares a plaintive, smoky vocal style -- Jones' music is without pretension or any hints of overt experimentation. Her lyrics are earnest expressions of everyday life -- "Annie is standing in the door / With a look on her face I can't ignore / She tells me that her heart is sore / And pulls me in" ("Wish I Could") - and they hover over simple arrangements that comprise nothing more than a piano, bass, guitar, occasional horns and strings, and a percussion section.
The effect as a whole is an equable meditation on life and love and a testament to the enduring allure of music without ornamentation.
Under the sparse arrangements and understated delivery - something of a Norah trademark - there's a lot of musicality in play, even though deceptively subdued.
Less is more.Indeed.
 I can't believe how disappointed I am!!... February 1, 2007
Christine
45 out of 54 found this review helpful
I was so excited to see Norah had a new CD coming out that I pre-ordered it. BIG mistake! I'm not doing that again with NJ. The first album was incredible, the second almost as good but this third one I'm having trouble even getting through the whole thing. I like mellow music but this is ridiculous, I'm falling asleep! I am making myself listen to the album a few times, but besides a couple of songs that are just ok, I am not really enjoying it. I'm fighting myself to keep from forwarding to the next track in mid-song. Most of the songs sound the same and I can't tell one from the next. To the reviewers who insist you have to read the lyrics... Yes lyrics are important but this is music, if I can't bare to listen to it, what's the point? The magic of the first album is no where to be found in this one.
My advice: Listen to it before you buy it because obviously there are some people who love this cd, maybe you are one of those few.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 368
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