Norah Jones named her eighth proper studio set Visions because many of the musical ideas occurred to her in the middle of the night, right when her consciousness was hazy: they weren't fully realized so much as an apparition. That sense of dreaminess carries through to the finished product but not in ways that are commonly associated with such a description. Far from being an album constructed for twilight hours – a dimly lit excursion into mood music – Visions is clear and light, its textures vividly articulated and its rhythms mellow and fluid. It's music that feels alive, inhaling and exhaling with a gentle insistence; it's never rushed, never clipped. Despite the record's inherent relaxation, Visions never quite proceeds in a linear path.

Listeners with even a passing familiarity with Norah Jones' fine official debut, Come Away With Me, will be captivated by First Sessions; for an artist making her earliest attempts at studio recording, Jones is remarkably assured and mature on these six cuts, revealing a unique sound and sensibility fully formed long before she signed to Blue Note. The opening "Don't Know Why" is the litmus test: the version here is nearly identical to the rendition on Come Away With Me, its impressive marriage of cocktail jazz and coffeehouse folk already solidified. Likewise, Jones' alluring readings of "Come Away With Me," "Turn Me On," and "Lonestar" anticipate the more robust versions captured on the LP. First Sessions is also worth seeking out because it contains a pair of songs yet to surface anywhere else – the Jesse Harris original "Something Is Calling You" and more intriguingly, a cover of jazz legend Horace Silver's "Peace."

Exorcizing the ghost of a failed relationship via the time-honored tradition of the breakup album, Norah Jones luxuriates in beautiful misery on Little Broken Hearts. Liberated by the separation but not quite ready to let it go, Jones achieves a curious subdued tension here, dressing unadorned confessionals in softly stylized studio noir created with the assistance of producer Danger Mouse, who collaborated with her the year before on the collective Rome. Seeming opposites – the classicist meets the futurist – Jones and Danger Mouse are well matched, as both artists are not as set in their ways as their individual reputations would suggest.

It may be far too obvious to even mention that Norah Jones' follow-up to her 18-million-unit-selling, eight-Grammy-winning, genre-bending, super-smash album Come Away with Me has perhaps a bit too much to live up to. But that's probably the biggest conundrum for Jones: having to follow up the phenomenal success of an album that was never designed to be so hugely popular in the first place. Come Away with Me was a little album by an unknown pianist/vocalist who attempted to mix jazz, country, and folk in an acoustic setting – who knew? Feels Like Home could be seen as "Come Away with Me Again" if not for that fact that it's actually better. Smartly following the template forged by Jones and producer Arif Mardin, there is the intimate single "Sunrise," some reworked cover tunes, some interesting originals, and one ostensible jazz standard.

In the dense annual blizzard of holiday albums, A VERY SPECIAL ACOUSTIC CHRISTMAS shines like a gleaming treetop star from a warm, inviting living room, thanks to its organic, no-frills approach and its remarkable lineup of performers. Dan Tyminski (of O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? fame) offers up a charming version of "Frosty the Snowman," while Willie Nelson lends his legendary voice and guitar playing to a fine take on "Please Come Home for Christmas." Alison Krauss contributes her surprisingly poppy "Only You Can Bring Me Cheer (Gentleman's Lady)," Marty Stuart confides that "Even Santa Claus Gets the Blues," and Pat Green saunters through a relaxed "Winter Wonderland." Bringing the Yuletide album to an appropriate close is Norah Jones, in a beautiful solo rendition of Horace Silver's "Peace".

Norah Jones is a multiple Grammy-winning singer and pianist who loves playing music with people, so she started her own podcast to do just that. On each episode of Playing Around, she sits down with a different guest for impromptu musical collaborations and candid conversation. Her guests come from all walks of life and every musical style, and you never know where the songs will take them. Music from her podcast is now available for the first time on Sea Blue vinyl for RSD Black Friday 2023.

Although the music of Norah Jones continues to blend pop, soul, folk, and country with a seasoning of jazz, her third album for Blue Note is the first where she's written (or collaborated on) all the material. Beneath the smooth surface lie darker strains on the album-opening "Wish I Could" (about a boyfriend lost to war), intimations of mortality in "The Sun Doesn't Like You," and the post-election horrors of "My Dear Country." The last seems to channel the inspiration of Brecht/Weill, while the equally bleak "Sinkin' Soon" is set to a jaunty Dixieland rag. Throughout, Jones's vocal intimacy and melodic warmth remain as disarmingly understated as ever. The soulful "Thinking of You," the countryish "Wake Me Up," and the syncopated "Be My Somebody" reflect the captivating style of her previous work. Although too much in the same midtempo mode becomes a dreamy lull, cut by cut, Jones's voice is irresistible.

'Til We Meet Again, the first live album released by Norah Jones, collects highlights from the tours she gave in the wake of the 2016 release of Day Breaks. The 14 songs on 'Til We Meet Again were recorded between 2017 and 2019, taken from performances given in the United States, Italy, France, Brazil, and Argentina. To Jones' credit, the album doesn't feel like it was cobbled together from different sources. The music flows easily, with Jones taking the time to stretch and solo, playing with her vocal phrasing just enough to enliven older songs and give newer tunes a lift. There are some overt surprises, such as a closing cover of Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" that was given a week after Chris Cornell's 2017 death at the same Detroit venue where the band played their last show, but this isn't an album that upends expectations. Rather, it's a testament to the enduring elegance of Norah Jones' jazz-pop while also offering proof of the depth of her songbook.