Eight years ago, there was no escaping Norah Jones. Her debut album, Come Away With Me, became a coffee-table staple, selling millions, winning eight Grammy awards and convincing middle-class couples that they did like jazz. Three albums on, Jones’s star has slipped slightly — The Fall, released late last year, was her first not to top the Billboard charts — though her core fanbase remains.
Judging by the crowd at a packed Apollo, that core consists of hand-holding couples in their thirties and early forties and pensioners. No problem there, but their stillness and silence throughout the bulk of a set that stretched to two hours made for a sombre show. Jones had to shoulder some of the blame. Having opened with the spine-tingling old single What Am I to You?, she then stuck almost entirely to new songs for more than an hour. All were meticulously arranged and expertly played by Jones on guitar or keyboard and her smartly attired five-piece band. Few, however, had any trace of a memorable tune, too many were ploddingly paced and all were so light and polite that it would have been easy to slip off to sleep.
The Fall is supposedly shot through with rock, but there was little evidence of it live. The former single Chasing Pirates did feature broody echo effects and a girl occasionally banging a drum and Even Though Now had twinkly electronics that would have suited Owl City, but there wasn’t an edge in sight.
Jones herself was easy to admire. She looked gorgeous in a red cocktail dress and high heels, not least when strumming a red, electric guitar, switched effortlessly between instruments and flirted sweetly with fans. “If I had known it was going to be this hot,” she said, “I would have worn less clothes.” Most importantly, her enchanting voice never sounded less than superb. Yet there was an inescapable sense that Jones was all dressed up with nowhere new to go. A cover of Johnny Cash’s Cry, Cry, Cry was the sparkiest song of the set, while it was only old hits such as Sunrise and Come Away With Me that finally got a few heads nodding.