Daughter of the living embodiment of Hindustani music (Ravi Shankar, dudes). That's some heavy shit to negotiate. Norah has decided that the way forward is to forge some superficial-sounding, I didn't say superficial, cocktail jazz with west coast space rock overtones (listen to the solo record by ex-Mamas and Papas John Williams, the wolfking of LA, the record Dylan copped the cover for Desire from). See Norah at the piano, and while her band nod and smile at eachother (tell them to concentrate and stop larking around like sad twits), Norah looks maybe embarassed or worried at her "lite" music. "Heavy" is finger-bleeding ragas.
I like "Don't know why", just like I like California (the enemy, but what a great place to be!). It buzzes in one ear and out the other like James Taylor. She does need to pare down the instrumentation a bit, especially on the newer single. I'd like to hear Slint backing her, they did a minor key thing which was jazzy but they'd have to be quiet mind, none of their Mahavishnu Orchestra theatrics!
Posted by Woebot at March 19, 2003 04:46 PM