»Slow New York«

Directly baked from the Norah Jones academy (featuring herself on piano and vocals too), »Slow New York« is a real ode to the city and a certain way of life pre-911 somehow. Drop Suzanne Vega, Woody Guthrie and add Stefan Grossman plus Paul Simon and you may get a certain picture. Julian’s voice is definitely close to the one of Norah Jones though male and slightly more folky than jazzy. There’s also a particular desire to sing smoothly and to slow down against the usual struggle for life there. It may feel like this is the soundtrack of a whole generation just past 40 coming from Hippie parents and other 60’s Americana tales. Meaning pretty gentle and peaceful, not very rock against the time. Everything’s superbly played, recorded, arranged, produced as it should. It maybe lacks a bit of the surprise and colourful childhood memories previously found in Jones herself but her original fans should definitely be fulfilled with that album. Fairly nice.