Norah Jones
The Fall (Blue Note/EMI)

There’s a little game you might like to play. It’ll take about 90 minutes of your time, but you can do it while you wash dishes, iron your socks, or whatever other mundane tasks you’ve been putting off. Don’t try to do anything too strenuous, though.

Here’s the game: listen to Norah Jones’s new album, The Fall, in its entirety. Then do something else for half an hour; maybe listen to some Slayer or watch an episode of Seinfeld on DejaView. Next, try to recall any part of any of the songs on The Fall. Do any of the words stick in your mind? Can you hum a single hook?

I’m guessing not, since Jones apparently forgot to include any. This was purported to be the album on which the one-time jazz chanteuse pushed her personal musical boundaries. That may well have been the case, but let’s face it: Jones’s musical boundaries are so narrow that any slight change could conceivably be touted as a quantum leap. Sure, she flirts with rock ’n’ roll this time around, but she seems reluctant to commit to a long-term relationship with it. The most up-tempo track on The Fall is “It’s Gonna Be”, on which Jones lays some funky Wurlitzer over a glam-rock beat. Not bad, but it ain’t exactly Led Zeppelin, either.

For the most part, Jones sticks to sleepy breakup ballads; for those who keep track of such things, this is her first release since her romance with her ex-bassist Lee Alexander came to an end. Each song has its own charms—“Tell Yer Mama” has a sweet hint of alt-country twang, for example, and “Even Though” is held together by dubby bass and waves of tremolo guitar—but there’s nothing here to quicken the pulse, nothing that demands to be heard again.

Jones has a distinct singing voice, and it’s a lovely one, but it doesn’t make the material any less boring. Don’t be surprised if she turns up on a future episode of The Mellow Show, swapping banter with Jack Johnson, Jason Mraz, and that super-weird violinist from the Dave Matthews Band.

Download This: “It’s Gonna Be”