Little Broken Hearts – Norah Jones

When she first arrived on the scene with the surprise smash Come Away With Me, Norah Jones’ musical subtlety was unfairly cast as dullness by some. ‘Coffee shop music’, critics cried.

But with her past two albums, 2007’s Not Too Late and 2009’s The Fall, those early criticisms gradually seemed more justified. They certainly weren’t bad records — they just passed by in a polite haze. One wondered if Jones would ever find something truly essential to say as a songwriter.

Now comes this, her first album with producer Danger Mouse, and surely the first big musical surprise of the year. Little Broken Hearts is brilliant, from start to finish, and unlike anything Jones has done before — smart, heartbreaking, blackly comic adult pop.

So what’s changed? Well, Danger Mouse’s production certainly helps — don’t expect any Gnarls Barkley craziness here, but he knows when to layer a full-sounding pop song (the very Aimee Mann-ish Say Goodbye) and when to pull back, leaving the focus on Jones’ devastating lyrics (the haunting ode to isolation Travelin’ On).

But the real star here is Jones. Reportedly many of the songs were written in the wake of her 2007 split with longtime partner Lee Alexander, and the album practically chokes with her heartbreak. She finds just the right balance between despondency, spite and hope. It’s an album that sees her seethe through a confrontation with the ‘other woman’ in one song (the barely contained Miriam: “Miriam, it’s such a pretty name, I’m gonna say it when I make you cry”) and come to terms with the independence of single life in another (Out On The Road).

Finally, a decade into her career, Norah Jones has found her voice.