With Little Broken Hearts

NORAH JONES AND BRIAN BURTONS NEW CD

ora Jones had known Danger Mouse, aka Brian Burton, since he called her in 2008 to contribute vocals to ROME, his valentine to classic Italian lm score music. Ive always known about Norahs voice, says Burton, and it was in my mind when doing the parts for ROME. We didnt really talk about many people, but Norah was the rst person we went to. Shes such a great singer. After those sessions Jones asked if they could work together again, and Burton suggested collaborating on something dark and moody someday. I remember saying to myself that wasnt necessarily the record Im trying to make right now, Jones recalls, laughing. But I knew I wanted to do something with him he has this terric energy in the studio, and I was open to trying anything. So when the opportunity to spend a few days writing songs at Burtons studio arose, Jones said yes right away. It felt completely easy, not like working at all. We started from scratch and came up with ve rough songs. Our goal was to just try things out, and if they didnt work, cool. No pressure. Then reality intruded. Jones was locked into a heavy touring itinerary for her 2009 album The Fall, and Burton was on tour with Broken Bells and recording many other projects. Whenever the two crossed paths, they vowed to follow up on the promise of those initial songs theyd brainstormed. It took several years before their schedules eventually meshed. Jones rented a house in Los Angeles for two months, and the two established a regular work schedule. Jones arrived empty-handed no tunes, no arrangements, just a few ideas in a notebook. For her it was a complete change. Each time shes entered a studio to record an album from her debut Come Away With Me through The Fall she has brought nished songs and at least basic arrangement ideas. Jones says she was initially excited about working in this way, then nervous about coming up with ideas. Once they started, it didnt take long for her to warm to the challenges of creating on the y, using whatever resources she and Burton had between them. It helped that they listened to lots of music, bonding over, among other things, Fleetwood Mac and the Violent Femmes. It seems that one trick in the studio has to do with inspiration, Jones says, and thats a great thing about Brian it was really cool to discover his inuences, things I enjoy but am not nearly as inuenced by. So hed play something very innocently but you could tell there was a purpose, too, sortve a lets hear this and see what happens mindset. I really responded to that curiosity, because everybody jumps o the diving board and lands in a dierent spot.

In Jones case, she landed in many dierent spots: Little Broken Hearts is a tour of stunningly nuanced environments too expansive to be labeled merely pop, each one a showcase for her intimate, seemingly eortless phrasing. While some tracks sound like classic Norah Jones the contemplative opener Good Morning most of them explore rhythms and textures far from her comfort zone. There are impressionistic forays into 70s country (Travelin On) and lonesome, bittersweet road songs (Out on the Road), moments of high-energy groove (Say Goodbye) and languid dream-sequence reections (After The Fall). Because they were writing as a team, Jones and Burton found themselves switching roles and instruments in order to capture what they were hearing. There was a lot of I might not be a great guitar player, but this works, Jones says, noting that many of the nal takes are just the duo multitracking multiple parts. (Later, they brought in a bandincluding drummer Joey Waronker, bassist Gus Seyert, and guitarist Blake Millsto bolster many of the tracks.) During the writing phase, Jones and Burton took advantage of the extensive stock of instruments (keyboards, etc.) crammed into his small studio, seeking out specic tones and textures, letting the sounds dene the scope of the songs. Id been much more literal about recording, Jones says, in terms of the piano does this here and so on. With Brian, its a lot about atmosphere and vibe. The ideas owed quickly. Near the end of the project, Jones remembers, Burton was ipping through his cell phone and stumbled on a short recording the two did during their original songwriting sessions and had forgotten about. It was just him playing these chords on guitar, and me singing gibberish. We were listening back, and around three minutes in it hit a melody that really worked. They then worked on some words, and the next day they recorded the entrancing Travelin On. That song, like most of the record, is told from the perspective of a wounded lover in the time between nishing The Fall and beginning this collaboration, Jones went through another breakup. Guess you could say life happens, because even though I thought I was done with that kind of song for a while, it all just seemed to come out as we worked. Wed have these great conversations about love and relationship and the endless attempts to understand that stu, and somehow they just seeped into what we were doing. Thats one of the great things about music, you can take the anxiety and anguish that youre living and turn it into something that might really lift up somebody else. Jones says Burton was fully engaged with the lyrics as well. Hed hear me and could relate, and then where I was stumped

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