STACK NZ October 2016 Issue 78

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42 OCTOBER 2016
MUSIC
By Graham Reid
Feels Like Home (2004)
Given those massive sales, we assume you've got her
debut. But this follow-up – where she went even more
country by duetting with Dolly Parton and writing lyrics for
Ellington's Don't Miss You At All – was its musical equal.
You don't have TomWaits and Kathleen Brennan write a
song for you, or have Levon Helm and Garth Hudson from
The Band as guests, if you ain't doin' something right.
The Little Willies (2006)
This band was her breathing space away from the solo
spotlight, and with friends she sang country songs (by
Hank Williams, Van Zandt, Nelson and others) alongside
originals. The closer about Lou Reed is very funny and
shows this project to be a relaxed, quiet spot in her high-
profile world.
The Fall (2009)
By this fourth release, many had decided Jones was just
making the same album over and over, although that was
far from true. Again she had interesting guests (guitarists
Marc Ribot and Smokey Hormel among them), and co-
wrote with Ryan Adams and Okkervil River's Will Sheff.
Darker, more brooding and steamy in places. The lost
Jones album?
Featuring Norah Jones (2010)
Something of a career stopgap compilation which
collects her guest appearances with everyone from the
Foo Fighters, Outkast and Talib Kweli to Ray Charles,
Willie Nelson and Herbie Hancock. More shapeless
than previous outings, but if we judge someone by the
company they keep...
NORAH JONES
And also...
Norah Jones puts herself about a bit – check her numerous guest
appearances on a couple of dozen albums – but her most unexpected
pairing was with Billy Joe Armstrong of Green Day for the 2013 album
Foreverly on which they covered the Everly Brothers' 1958 album Songs
Our Daddy Taught Us . It is surprisingly good.
For more interviews, reviews and overviews from Graham Reid visit
Because her debut album Come AwayWith Me (2002) sold
over 25 million copies, smart folks and cynics wrote Norah
Jones' music off as polite MOR. But it was a canny distillation
of country and cool jazz, and her new album Day Breaks –
originals and covers of material by Duke Ellington, Horace
Silver and NeilYoung – takes her back to those roots.
Here are some pointers where it comes to her catalogue...
Public Image Ltd
Metal Box Super Deluxe
When the Sex Pistols imploded, John Lydon
with bassist Jah Wobble and guitarist Keith
Levine emerged as Public Image Ltd (PiL).
Their 1978 debut First Edition announced
a new direction but the following year they
delivered Metal Box (three records tightly packed into a film canister).
Once you finally prised them out you were treated to – challenged
by – sprawling, tightly-wound music (the opener Albatross is 10
minutes long) on which Lydon indulged his love of Can but coupled
their improvised, rolling sound with Wobble's inventive bass and
Levine's naggingly abrasive guitar. A great post-punk album, Metal
Box -- thrillingly difficult but rewarding – now gets the expanded
treatment adding B-sides, radio sessions, live version and different
mixes (the four-record version with a rarities LP and a download card
for everything in the four CD version). Edgy and exceptional. You have
been warned.
Peter Tosh
Legalize It
This expanded-to-double-vinyl
edition re-presents the 1976
debut by the former Wailer
who carried a number from
that band into the sessions.
While Marley delivered the
serious Rastaman Vibration
and Bunny Wailer dropped the
exceptional, dark and roots
Blackheart Man the same year,
Tosh hit the middle ground,
pushed pleasure over the
political (although that's here
too) and in the title track says,
“legalize it and I will advertise
it”. Which he does on the
cover, smoking his chillum
in a field of marijuana. Great
rootsy songs (Burial) too.
Recommended (re)discovery.
Free
Live!
By the time this album was
released in late 1971 the
original band had broken
up, but theirs had been a
remarkable run with four
studio albums in two years,
an appearance at the Isle of
Wight Festival and ensuring
the reputations of singer Paul
Rodgers (still frontman for Bad
Company) and guitarist Paul
Kossof, the inspired blues-
rock player who died in 1976.
Always an acclaimed live band
(their sole hit was All Right
Now which gets extended
treatment here), this reissue
with extra tracks delivers their
sweat and sinew as it should
be heard.