Norah Jones - Fall Away - Non-Album Tracks (2011-2012)

Note that I used to call this album "Picture in a Frame." But when overhauling Norah Jones's stray tracks albums in June 2020, I found out the song with that title was actually recorded in 2001, although it wasn't released until 2012. So I moved the song to an earlier album. That meant I had to change the album title to a different song on it, "Fall Away."

Here's the next Norah Jones stray tracks album. By this time, she had so many different musical projects going on that all these songs are just from the year 2012. If you liked her previous stray tracks albums, you'll like this. In fact, I think this is a particularly strong one.

As I keep saying, Jones's music outside her studio albums under her own name are more interesting than those studio albums. For one thing, she shows more range and takes more chances, freed from the pressure of her record company wanting her to sell millions. A good example of this is her side project, the Little Willies. Three of the songs here are from the Little Willies album "For the Good Times." A majority of that band's songs are not sung by Jones. I'm only including the ones where she sings lead. You can tell even by the band name - a penis joke - that she and her band mates are out to have fun. Their music is much more country-based than Jones' usual stuff.

This album doesn't have as many covers of classic hits as with some of her other stray tracks collections. Normally, I'm not a big fan of Jones' original songs, because they tend to fall into the "easy listening" genre too much for my tastes. But many of the songs here are written or co-written by her, yet I like these more than most of the songs on her own albums. It seems some of her more adventurous songs got relegated to bonus tracks status. But breaking the mold of the typical Jones sound is what makes them stand out.

In terms of sound quality, all the songs have been officially released except for the first three. Two of those sound very good. The third, a cover of Bob Dylan's classic "Every Grain of Sand," if a bit iffy. It clearly comes from an audience bootleg, and you can hear some of the crowd. However, I liked it so much that I painstakingly all the hollers and jabbering I could. Unfortunately, I could only fix the parts between the vocals, by patching in other instrumental bits. So it's still a little rough, but I think it's good enough to merit inclusion on the album.

Three other songs didn't make it on the album due to sound quality issues, so they're included as bonus tracks only. For one of those, "Maggie's Farm" (another Dylan classic, by the way), I edited out some parts of the song due to rough sound, plus someone else was singing lead vocals. But I edited it in such a way that it still sounds like a full song.

This album is 43 minutes long.

01 Everyday (Puss N Boots featuring Norah Jones)
02 I Gotta Know (Puss N Boots featuring Norah Jones)
03 Every Grain of Sand [Edit] (Norah Jones)
04 Speak Low (Norah Jones & Tony Bennett)
05 Everybody Needs a Best Friend (Norah Jones)
06 If the Law Don't Want You (Norah Jones)
07 Fist City (Little Willies featuring Norah Jones)
08 Out on the Road [Mondo Version] (Norah Jones)
09 Oh, Darling (Norah Jones)
10 Jolene (Little Willies featuring Norah Jones)
11 For the Good Times (Little Willies featuring Norah Jones)
12 I Don't Wanna Hear Another Sound (Norah Jones)
13 Fall Away (Norah Jones & Wax Poetic)

Maggie's Farm [Edit] (Norah Jones & Ben Trokan)
Mississippi (Norah Jones)
Only a Broken Heart (Norah Jones)

https://www.imagenetz.de/d6Gub

The cover art comes from a 2012 publicity photo.