Sarah Ciantar
Arts Editor
The soothing, melancholic melodies of Norah Jones’s new album, Little Broken Hearts, are a collaborative effort between Jones and Brian Joseph Burton, otherwise known as Danger Mouse, to compile 12 brooding songs.
Jones takes a new approach to music by presenting a darker, more raw style. She fills her music with emotion and heartbreak, nicely complemented with heavy percussion and recursive lyrics.
In the summer of 2011, Jones and Burton connected to finish the album. At this time, Jones drew on a devastating breakup with her now ex-boyfriend.
Repetitive, soothing notes start off the album in the track “Good Morning,” where soft notes and depictive lyrics show Jones’s melancholy, allowing the listener to relate with his or her personal relationship turmoils.
The title track presents heavy percussion, a repetition of sounds, and rawer-sounding vocals, culminating in an indie motif.
The track “4 Broken Hearts” presents both a unique sound with various repetitive loops that combine with edgy lyrics to display Jones’s reminiscing thoughts.
Jones’s edgier, darker approach is mirrored in her choice of album art, inspired by the poster for the 1965 film Mudhoney. The visual aesthetics of the album present a vintage feel to complement Jone’s vocal transformation. On the cover, the combination of a choppy haircut, bold red lips, and a shadow covering half of her face give Jones a fresh look.
Jones expresses, throughout the album, the various emotions that relationships nurture, and allows her audience to access a range of emotional states to relate and submerge themselves in her music.
