Norah Jones Releases Expanded Tenth Anniversary Edition Of ‘Little Broken Hearts’
Originally released in 2012, the Danger Mouse-produced album remains a high watermark in Jones’ catalog.
Norah Jones has released an expanded edition of her widely-acclaimed fifth album, Little Broken Hearts through Blue Note Records.
The record’s new, expanded 31-track edition has been curated by Jones and Eli Wolf and includes a plethora of rarities including alternate versions and remixes, in addition to a previously unreleased live version of the album recorded for Austin City Limits in 2012. The new deluxe version of Little Broken Hearts is now available as a 3-LP vinyl set, on 2-CD and through digital platforms.
Jones defied expectations with the release of Little Broken Hearts, a striking collaboration with the producer Danger Mouse that arrived 10 years after her debut Come Away With Me prompting SPIN to call it “the second essential record of Norah Jones’ career.”
“Ten years later, these are still some of my favorite songs in my catalogue to play live, no matter the instrumentation or arrangement, they just feel special,” Jones reflects. “And the way this album sounds makes my ears so happy. I’m incredibly thankful to Danger Mouse for letting me explore with him and opening up my world to a new way of doing things that continues to inspire and influence me.”
Norah Jones and Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton) first worked together when the producer called upon her to contribute vocals to his acclaimed 2011 album ROME. It was Jones’ singular voice that caught Burton’s attention as he began to conceptualize his homage to classic Italian film score music. He already had Jack White in mind for the male role, and he and his collaborator Daniele Luppi realized that Jones’ voice would give the project the perfect balance it needed. Jones contributed three standout songs to ROME including “Black” (a live version of which is included on this set) and their connection proved deep enough that they decided to collaborate again on Jones’ next studio album.
In a first for her, Jones arrived to the studio empty-handed – no tunes or arrangements, just a few ideas in a notebook. The songs were all built from the ground up with Jones and Burton sharing all the songwriting credits and performing the majority of the instrumental parts; Jones on piano, keyboards, bass, and guitar, and Burton contributing drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, and string arrangements. The process was a complete change for Jones, but once they started it didn’t take long for her to warm to the challenges of creating on the fly using whatever resources she and Burton had between them. Later, however, they brought in a band—including drummer Joey Waronker, bassist Gus Seyffert, and guitarist Blake Mills—to further color many of the tracks.
Released in 2012, Little Broken Hearts was a fascinating and unexpected step in Jones’ artistic evolution. Together she and Burton married their highly personal styles to create an entirely new sound. Created in the aftermath of a breakup, the album was a tour of stunningly nuanced environments. Twelve darkly luminous songs. Twelve little broken hearts. Each an exploration of wounded emotions from various perspectives that invariably led to a place of beauty and uplift.
While some tracks sounded like classic Norah Jones—such as the contemplative opener “Good Morning”—most explored rhythms, textures, and themes far from her comfort zone, with the record’s moods ranging from high-energy groove of “Say Goodbye” and the buoyant hooks of “Happy Pills” to the impressionistic dream-sequence reflections of “After The Fall” and the chilling murder ballad “Miriam.”
“I didn’t expect all the lyrics to tie in so well, especially since we wrote in such a spontaneous way,” Jones said at the time. “It turns out to be kind of a story. It has these different dimensions, things sneak up on you. And even though the record has all these cool sounds and interesting grooves that are Brian’s signature, mostly I’m proud of our writing together. The songs themselves.”
