Female Vocals - Nora Jones new album - Pick Me Off The Floor


Nora just released a new album -Pick Me Up Off The Floor - if you are into vocals please listen to this album ! Her vocals are amazing thru my Maggie 1.7 is. The recording is clean and crisp. Cymbals are amazing, vocals touch my soul! Base line is solid. Another gift via MQA thru my LUMIN T2. Dianna Krall has competition as my ‘Best Female Vocalist’ IMHO !

Happy Listening!
Tom8999
tom8999
It is interesting - I know there are so many audiophiles who really dig both Nora and Diana but neither have ever resonated with me. There’s too much tentativeness in their voice and delivery - just always struck me as "lightweights" who lacked emotion and conviction compared to so many other female vocalists. Is it just me or am I just not "getting" what these two are saying?
3 easy pieces
your lack of getting into either likely has to do with something in your system, as I find neither of your objections in my experience, though, at times (pre changing gear out) that I could agree


Tomcy6 - you are welcome. I have been a Nora Jones fan for years - all of her albums have not been great - but this one has really struck me as exceptional. It is one thing to ‘do the jazz standards well’, but to me to write your own music and put a team together to create such a well layered recording (piano, bass, strings, backup vocals) is quite an accomplishment.

i am on my third listen and I am still hearing more detail!

Gosta - thanks for the tip on Victoria Tolstoy - I will check her out - 

Happy Listening!
I don't follow Norah closely, so maybe this isn't new, but this album sounds like a more mature artist to me.
I'm actually not very impressed with Norah's latest album. Heard someone above say this is 'layered' jazz arrangements. That's the thing that this album is not. It sounds like a group got together one lazy afternoon and tinkered with whatever was in the room. Lifeless, self-similar tunes.. NJ has done a lot better. To each their own I suppose.
@tweak1   

your lack of getting into either likely has to do with something in your system

It's not my system, which doesn't discriminate only against Nora and Diana while making hundreds of other vocalists sound wonderful - it's the overly soothing, limited range, persistence towards ballads,and lack of grit that simply doesn't resonate with me.  She's just not my cup of tea and I'm often amazed by her soaring popularity..which means my awful taste is certainly in the minority.  Hey, I don't get reggae either...doesn't stir my soul.  But I'd never blame my gear on not enjoying reggae either. 
Julie priest and three easy payments - everyone’s ear is the final judge of good or bad music - it is called freedom!

sorry you do not hear the same things I hear in Norah’s new album. For me her albums have progressed in a very positive direction over the last 5 years - her writing and layers of piano - horns - drums strings have gained a complexity that challenge my Maggie’s to reproduce in my systems at home. More fun for me - sorry you guys miss it.

Happy Listening!
I really like the new Norah Jones release, but it has nothing to do (at least consciously) with the technical merits of the recording.  I love her voice and think she put together a nice collection of songs that bring a sense of enjoyment when I listen to them.  Thank goodness we don't all like or dislike the same things or the world would be a boring place.  
+1 Oz. Puss N Boots (Nora+2). ”Sisters” - rootsy, very good, excellent Recorded.
 I really like Nora Jones and enjoy all her music, have to say though that her one before this was not my favorite but will probably get this one based on the feedback here. I really appreciate her most when she steps away from her solo work with the Little Willies stuff and absolutely love Foreverly/duet with Biily Joe Armstrong doing the Everly Brothers album/Songs our Daddy taught us. Enjoy the music
I saw that album, too, and particularly like the track "Flame Twin", as her voice does not sound like the worn out soft, breathy vocals she is famous for. She actually puts some bite into the lyrics of that piece. 

Mindi Abair and the Boneshakers has revised her sound fundamentally on album "No Good Deed" if I have the title correct, and not for the worse. She is a sax player, but with a very good voice. 
YMMV 

Was shocked to hear how great a Jazz singer Alison Moyet is, on her album Voice. Well worth a listen.  :)

Panels, omni, horn, dynamic, OB - they can all sound fabulous with lyrics when the system is fine.  
@tom8999 fair enough. I think the latest album has zero musicality. It's one long song...all songs sounding pretty much like the other....with a bit of tinkering "music" behind. To each their own indeed. 
I am in the not impressed crowd. The album is not bad, but there is simply nothing new compared to what she produced before.
It’s a solid record with some standout cuts and her glorious voice throughout. The thing with singers is how do they make their mark? Style? As  Compositional interpreters? Communicators of the ephemeral? I like what NJ does, how she goes about doing it, and how she sounds when she delivers. 
BTW— she did a series of You Tube at home live vids anyone who loves music should check out. She does the first live version of my favorite song from the album on her first “episode”...
I'm a big Norah Jones fan. I have listened to about half the songs. Yawn! I'll finish listening but I don't imagine liking those songs any more than I did the ones I've heard.