Norah Jones took liberty with her blockbuster success to set out on a musical walkabout, spending a good portion of the decade following 2004's
Feels Like Home experimenting, either on her own albums or on a variety of collaborations.
Day Breaks, released four years after the atmospheric adult alternative pop of the
Danger Mouse-produced
Little Broken Hearts, finds
Jones returning home to an extent: it, like her 2002 debut
Come Away with Me, is a singer/songwriter album with roots in pop and jazz, divided between originals and sharply selected covers. Such similarities are immediately apparent, but
Day Breaks is much slyer than a mere revival. That term suggests a slight air of desperation, but
Jones comes from a place of confidence on
Day Breaks, happy to demonstrate everything she's learned over the years. Often, these tricks are deliberately sly: she'll pair her torchy original "And Then There Was You" with a woozy, bluesy cover of
Neil Young's "Don't Be Denied" that winds up evoking
Come Away with Me, then follow that up with the dense, nocturnal rhythms of "Day Breaks." She threads in versions of
Horace Silver's "Peace" and
Duke Ellington's "African Flower" while inviting saxophonist
Wayne Shorter and organist
Lonnie Smith in to play -- moves that signal that there's a strong, elastic jazz undercurrent to
Day Breaks that means this record breathes more than her debut. Such a sense of quiet adventure gives the record depth, but what gives it resonance are the exquisitely sculpted songs.
Jones' originals feel as elegant as time-honored standards, and all her covers feel fresh. The former speak to her craft, the latter to her gifts as a stylist, and the two combine to turn
Day Breaks into a satisfying testament to her ever-evolving musicianship. [A two-CD Deluxe Edition of
Day Breaks was released in 2017, including a nine-track bonus disc recorded live in October 2016 at the Sheen Center for Thought and Culture's Loreto Theater in New York City.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine