The songstress delves into darker territory on The FallNorah Jones gets her hands dirty on her new album, The Fall - figuratively speaking, of course.
We are, after all, talking about one of the gentlest voices in jazz-pop, an artist who has sold more than 35 million copies of her first three albums. So she wasn't about to go all hardcore on us.
The Fall was produced by Jacquire King, who has worked with Tom Waits and indie-rock acts Kings of Leon and Modest Mouse, among others. A huge Waits fan, Jones used his 1999 album Mule Variations as a starting point.
“I always loved that album," she said last week, on the phone from her home in New York City. “It's one of my favourites. It was super-influential. I like the grittiness. I thought the sounds and textures were amazing.
“Part of that is Tom - he's famous for creaky sounds. I really wanted an engineer who could help me get that; I wasn't trying to sound like him, but I wanted somebody who could get a grittier texture overall."
