REVIEW: JONESING FOR HOME

It's not easy being jazz's biggest crossover star in decades. Now Norah Jones must maintain the mystique that made her debut, "Come Away With Me," a welcome "TRL" antidote, and continue catering to the almost 8 million listeners who bought the disc. The 24-year-old singer-pianist, who got her start in tiny Manhattan joints, was clearly freaked out when she won eight Grammys and beat out "The Boss" for best album last year. "I never, ever thought the music I made would become popular music," she stammered, and added that it would be impossible to follow up her 2003 success. Even then Jones knew to cut herself some slack.

On "Feels Like Home," Jones clearly tries to steer clear of the seamless melodies and soft-sanded edges that made her last album such a draw for casual listeners. Jesse Harris, who wrote most of "Come Away With Me," now simply plays on two songs. Instead, Jones and her boyfriend/bassist, Lee Alexander, wrote half of "Home," and relied on material from other bandmates and friends, as well as covers of Tom Waits and Duke Ellington (with lyrics by Jones), for the rest. The result is choppy, jumping from smoky piano ballads to lazy blues-rock to an awkward bluegrass duet with Dolly Parton. The simple lyrics verge on jazz-bar generic: sunrises, the warm glow of wine, swimming with fish. "Home" sounds more like an amateur's debut than a top-of-the-pops follow-up--and maybe that's the point: to tone down and make a "little" album. You can take the girl out of the coffeehouse, but...

Jones would have shot herself in the foot if it weren't for her hypnotic trademark voice. Her creamy-cool tone and laid-back delivery transform mediocre material into enjoyable and sometimes even compelling music. "Feels Like Home" feels like Jones's retreat from places that aren't homelike--like the Grammy stage. It may cost her half the fans who bought her debut. Still, that'll leave her 4 million more than she ever expected.