So, news that Danger Mouse would be working with Norah Jones was a big deal. We’re talking about The Grey Album and MF Doom, Gnarls Barkley and Broken Bells. Hip-hop culture and remixing, electronica and blurpy effects: These are things that were to be allowed to come into contact with that most pure of instruments – the voice of Norah Jones.
It was a stunning musical development that made me more than a little apprehensive before … Little Broken Hearts arrived on April 25, 2012. While I was quite sure that Jones’ voice didn’t need anything else, I was willing to wait for the result.
Well, it went far beyond stunning. Revealed in the songs was this mind-boggling idea: Somebody … cheated … on … Norah … Jones.
And how did Jones deal with her breakup? By constructing a suite a songs as desolate as Beck’s Sea Change and as pointed and brutal as Bob Dylan’s Blood On the Tracks and Richard and Linda Thompson’s Shoot Out the Lights. Yes, there are breakup albums – and then there’s … Little Broken Hearts.
The album began with “Good Morning,” which at first seemed like a somewhat typical lament about love gone wrong until a verse started with “Good morning – why did you do it?” Wait, what? Did she just say that?
Indeed, she did. And it was there that Danger Mouse guided Norah Jones’ emotions in some surprising sonic directions: “Say Goodbye” had a taunting hook that delivered the barb, “You don’t have to tell the truth – because if you do, I’ll tell it too.” “Broken Hearts” laid down a sleazy, blues-noir vibe while the title track bubbled along with a dark and tense riff built on a layer of swampy guitar. And then there was “Happy Pills,” an upbeat pop tune that frames a “I never want to see your face again” blow.
To my ears, … Little Broken Hearts most emotionally affecting songs were “She’s 22” and the stunning “Miriam.” On the former, there was the tension between stark bitterness and acceptance. Will his new 22-year-old make him happy? And just maybe she’d be OK with the idea that he’d found happiness?
“Miriam,” on the other hand, found our protagonist directly addressing her foe – and threatening her with death. Sung with a gently rising melodic line, the combination of the lightness of the music and the darkness of the theme was almost too much to take:
Miriam, when you were having fun in my big pretty house? Did you think twice?
I’ve been on that side of a dissolved relationship. I’ve felt that awful rain of emotions. There’s shock, anger, denial, fear, and even some love that just doesn’t want to let go. It’s hard to say what feels worse, the barely contained rage or the sad wish that everything might return to normal.
In time, that hardly matters, as your idea of “normal” has been re-defined for you. Just ask Norah Jones.
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