Norah Jones has never dwindled with being musically creative, as she’s grown as a Jazz/Soul/Pop singer after the momentous highs of her debut, Come Away With Me. From duet albums to more jazzier compositions, she has had potent consistency, which continues to show with her new album, Visions. Built differently from what she has done previously, it offers a new musical perspective where she’s weaving her illustrious vocals and production to illuminate the ethereal space we inhabit in our dream or a fugue state, as that is the idea that triggered this approach. The production by Leon Michel is focused, making the atmosphere more subtle. It’s a wavering presence that doesn’t command your attention but elevates the music so that Jones’s vocals ruminate through you. Visions is an album that picks up momentum from beginning to end as if she’s painting the picture carefully and adding to the cast of colors as it goes along; in doing so, you’re in this shimmering cloud of soulful vocal bliss. It shines via Jones’ range that can hit those tender notes, sometimes surprising you as they play with instrumentations to change the approach of the vocals.
Produced by Leon Michels of El Michels Affair, we hear his touch emanate as the music isn’t as reliant on overt colorizations to grasp your attention, instead asking you to focus on the rhythm beneath the vocals and hear the synergy as they collide and travel forward, hooking you with the melodies. It’s evident throughout the album as they play with different instruments while building up what gets added beyond a core of drums, piano, and guitar. As they get incorporated, their subtle presence becomes a touching stone that interplays between certain vocal pauses (“I’m Awake”) or in conjunction with the core of the production, like the clashing tambourine in “Swept Up In The Night,” adding more to the painting as you float through and hear the melodies. Norah Jones finds a middle ground where her emotions and notions connect, and the sentiments get heard vividly, even if the lyrics don’t tend to expound greatly, like “On My Way,” which tries to play to notions of nightmares and never feeling afraid without oomph. It’s unlike how she can elevate simplicity, like with the fantastic “Running,” which reflects those dreams of us running on a never-ending path toward regret.
What’s unique about Visions is that it doesn’t deliver conventional constructions, bolstering the encompassing vision behind the album, i.e., music that came to her “in the middle of the night or in that moment right before sleep, and ‘Running’ was one of them where you’re half asleep and kind of jolted awake,” according to Rolling Stone. It’s a definitive gem that stays consistent. The writing’s slight interpersonal approach is reflective of Norah Jones within these moments; however, themes still resonate through, even when it’s a story like “Queen of The Sea” or more poetic like “Visions,” One of many standouts is such because of it’s writing—in “Alone With My Thoughts,” Norah Jones writes and gives 14 lines spaced through this weary but emotionally potent production where the organ and piano empower flow while the tenor sax and upright bass add texture, furthering a positive notion towards having a moment with your thoughts. Consolidated with her vocals, it’s a concoction that makes the album one worthwhile experience and heavily memorable, like the last one I truly loved, Day Breaks.
Visions contains a balance between toned-down moments, like the opening song, “All This Time,” where it’s a slow timbre with the drums, as it plays sidekick to an ever-engrossing piano that becomes its own character to something more radiant and fluid, adding some conciseness to the core percussion and connect the loose in between moments. It’s a balance that doesn’t let the elevated levels of a song like “Staring At The Wall” come as jarring when placed next to something slower, and part of that can go to the twinkling pianos and mystifying drums. When it jumps into having more jazz-like notches in the mix, it adds boastful sentiments to these thoughts and emotions. It transcends past the complexions of the production; it shows how one can weave intricate productions without an overabundance of glitz to hit the proper textures of its atmosphere, like the minimalist approach to the construction of “That’s Life.” Some of that comes at the benefit of the artist offering an open space for one to reflect with her, especially as she opts for more unconventional writing to take on a lush retro-soul journey that leaves little holes within its run–that hole being “On My Way,” and “I Just Wanna Dance, which is too close to classic Norah, it doesn’t feel like anything new, which can be a minimal disappointment.
Though one can be more partial to hearing Norah Jones work with more big bands, this one is more tender with intricately crafted instrumentations, which does more for co-opting the style taken and delivering that to listeners, making it worth your undivided attention from beginning to end. It leaves you in awe without trending too far into overplaying the production’s connecting moments. It’s a fleeting juncture you want to have on loop as the music rarely dwindles; it keeps you light on your toes and focused on the dreamscape she and Leon Michels create, giving it an underlying garage feel with its naturalistic instrumentations, specifically from the twinkling piano keys. I can’t help but recommend this enough, especially as Norah Jones continues to be a lovely bright spot in pop/soul music.
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