Norah Jones
Pick Me Up Off The Floor
Blue Note
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A lot has changed in Trump-era America since nine-time GRAMMY-winning singer, songwriter and pianist Norah Jones released her jazz-heavy sixth studio effort Day Breaks in 2016. 2020 alone is tarnished by the coronavirus leaving all of us home-ridden, as more than 100,000 untimely sudden deaths from the virus continue to tally and 41 million Americans are left out of work.

Now sprinkle in the anger and rage from police-related violence specifically targeting unarmed Black people (both men and women) spawning into massive protests and various calls-to-action spanning the country, and you have the biggest sociocultural, post-traumatic powder keg any of us has ever experienced in this lifetime.

But somewhere in that darkness, uncertainty and disillusionment, music can heal and imitate life.

Unconsciously, Jones had accumulated two years’ worth of rough mixes of throwaway songs that somehow speak to the despair and sense of longing for human connection the general public craves. Grabbing the baton also from her 2012 concept album co-produced with Danger Mouse, Little Broken Hearts, Jones offers Pick Me Up Off The Floor, her seventh full-length project via Blue Note Records, to provide her signature breathy, seductive vocals a place to rest comfortably over her all-too familiar musical canvas that splashes together piano-heavy jazz, blues, folk and roots music.

Pick Me Up Off The Floor is Jones’ darkest project to date, a long way from her tranquil, Diamond-certified 2002 chart-topping debut release Come Away With Me.

Jones, who was forced to cancel a tour this year in support of her all-female side trio, Puss N Boots, takes up the bulk of the songwriting and production on the album’s 11 songs, letting Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy take the helm on two cuts. Pick Me Up Off The Floor’s opener “How I Weep” features the daughter of the late musician Ravi Shankar lamenting over a percussive ticking clock, a whimpering cello and piano keystrokes that could be abstractly interpreted to resemble her stream of tears. “Flame Twin” easily owes its mood to redemptive Sunday morning gospel, much like “Heartbroken, Day After” and “This Life.”

On “Hurts to Be Alone,” a hopeless Jones sings of embracing solitude as the means to finding happiness within. “Say No More” fades in with a swinging piano groove that meets up with some crooning horns while Jones’ whiskey-flavored contralto sings of realizing some type of foul play.

The country & western-esque “To Live” reveals some ounce of hope and liberation. “I’m Alive,” the album’s lead single, twangs as Jones appropriately dips subtly into a socially conscious ballad that echoes 1970s singer-songwriters cranking out protest songs.

Jones relapses into her pain briefly, interrogating and pleading with her love interest on the haunting “Were You Watching?” before closing Pick Me Up Off The Floor with the optimistic “Stumble On My Way” and the acoustic “Heaven Above.”

Pick Me Up Off The Floor doesn’t overstep its boundaries musically or try too hard to be preachy with its lyrical content. It just succeeds in reminding us listeners that Jones can consistently serve a soothing collection of music that calms the nerves in extremely tense times.

Notable Tracks: “I’m Alive” | “Say No More” | “This Life”

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