POP/ROCK
Norah Jones, "Pick Me Up Off the Floor" (Blue Note)
The torch-singing pianist's records are always tasteful and never in the slightest hurry. And in the frantic, no-attention-span world we used to live in, her air of imperturbability could seem so becalmed that it sometimes bordered on the soporific. But now it's a quality that comes in handy, amid global pandemic, economic collapse and civil unrest.
This album grew out of a series of mini-collaborations — with poet Sarah Oda, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, and others — but hangs together cohesively. It revs up occasionally, as on the gospel-fired "Flame Twin." But usually, "Pick Me Up" is happy to settle into a deeply comfortable, languorous groove.
It really finds itself in a stretch of three thematically linked songs about essential stuff: "This Life," "To Live" and "I'm Alive." In the last one, written with Tweedy, Jones sings about a woman finding her strength. The first one captures a common feeling these days: "This life as we know it," Jones sings, "is over."
Dan Deluca, Philadelphia Inquirer
The 1975, "Notes on a Conditional Form" (Interscope)
The sheer sprawl of this album — 80 minutes, 22 tracks — is both maddening and impressive. The self-aware British quartet, fronted by Matt Healy, opens "Notes" as they have their previous three albums, with a version of "The 1975," this time with a voice-over speech from teen climate activist Greta Thunberg. Then, abruptly, comes the punky, Blur-ry rush of "People," followed by a sedate orchestral instrumental, then the heavily Auto-Tuned electropop of "Frail State of Mind."
