Norah Jones, “The Fall” (EMI Blue Note)
Norah Jones ditches her old band and most of her trademark piano playing for her latest release, “The Fall.” Jones sounds more confident and stretches her songwriting muscle on her fourth solo record.It’s simple, restrained but still melodic.
Producer Jacquire King deserves some credit for the shift in style. It’s a subtle one that Jones fans probably will embrace, but the growth from her breakout 2002 debut, “Come Away With Me,” is clear.
Jones penned eight of the 13 songs and shares credit with others on the rest, including Ryan Adams on “Light as a Feather.” Her continued growth as a writer, not just as singer, brings another exciting dimension to “The Fall.” Scott Bauer, The Associated Press
Kid Sister, “Ultraviolet” (Downtown)
Squired into the limelight a few years ago by a Kanye West mixtape, Kid Sister — a.k.a. Melisa Young, a 29-year-old Chicagoan — brings the benign, level- headed fizz you heard a generation ago from female rappers rather than the dour heat you hear now from, well, they’re just about all male now, aren’t they?
“Ultraviolet,” her much-delayed first album, aims to be a constant stream of enlightened fun. This is a record girls can share with their parents and possibly even their boyfriends.
There’s a lot about “Ultraviolet” you might want to like. But it runs more on concept than talent; too often it feels self-conscious and low on hooks.
Kid Sister has breadth and knows her history. Tracks switch up their decade references in seconds, and her toughest poses turn to playful humor. She’s a fashionable everywoman, cheerfully representing working-class budgets and selectively admiring luxury tastes; this is a record that references both Christian Louboutin heels and Pro Wings, the sneakers available exclusively at Payless. Where Kid Sister doesn’t want to be is the middle.
Yet as a rapper that’s where she is: not terrible, not great.
She stays on the beat, rapping fast without swinging much, sticking to a few cadences, keeping too many of her lyrics defined by the old-fashioned rhetoric of the boast.
Kid Sister raps about student loans and working at the mall, but her music suggests a woman with artistic and personal options. Ben Ratliff, The New York Times
