Bluesy songstress Norah Jones returns to our shores again for another concert that’ll leave audiences charmed and in introspection. This time, her expanded repertoire includes tracks from her 2012 album Broken Little Hearts, including ‘Happy Pills’ written after a break up that speaks of heart break, but more importantly, rising above and enjoying the single life. Time Out asks here a few Qs:
Little Broken Hearts, your new record, is a summer album, but it’s also quite dark.
[Cowriter and producer Brian Burton, a.k.a. Danger Mouse] wanted to make a dark record. He likes that kind of thing. I’m pretty mellow anyway, the music I make is quiet. So it kind of just ended up that way. We finished it at the end of last summer, and I was thinking it would be nice to put it out in the wintertime, but the way things go, we needed a little extra time to get it set up. We’re going to be doing a lot of outdoor shows – I don’t feel like all of the music is dark sounding, so it’s cool. We’ll mix it in with some happy songs, and it’ll be all good. Put a cherry on top, wrap it in a bow.
One of the strongest tracks is 'Miriam', which chronicles a murder. Where did that come from?
I was playing with [my country band] the Little Willies last year and we did 'Jolene', where she’s begging, and we did 'Fist City' where Loretta Lynn is going to punch you if you take her man. Then we did 'Delia’s Gone', and the Johnny Cash murder song. I think it just kind of popped out of that stuff. I made it really scary. The fun thing about trying different things out in the studio is that there’s no filter when you’re comfortable in your situation, and I was very comfortable around Brian. That’s the great thing about trying stuff out and not being so self-conscious when you’re writing. I think that’s how you get good, messed-up songs!