Little Broken Hearts (Deluxe Edition)

A decade ago, Norah Jones defied expectations with her 5th studio album Little Broken Hearts, a striking collaboration with the producer Danger Mouse that arrived 10 years after her debut Come Away With Me prompting SPIN to call it “the second essential record of Norah Jones’ career.”

On June 2, Blue Note Records will release the expanded 31-track Little Broken Hearts (Deluxe Edition) curated by Jones and Eli Wolf which includes rare bonus tracks, alternate versions, and remixes, as well as a previously unreleased live version of the album that was recorded for Austin City Limits in 2012. The Deluxe Edition is available for pre-order now as a 3-LP set, 1LP, 1CD and digital download. Listen to “Killing Time,” a bonus track that is available digitally for the first time today.

“10 years later, these are still some of my favorite songs in my catalogue to play live, no matter the instrumentation or arrangement, they just feel special,” says Jones. “And the way this album sounds makes my ears so happy. I’m incredibly thankful to Danger Mouse for letting me explore with him and opening up my world to a new way of doing things that continues to inspire and influence me.”

Norah Jones and Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton) first worked together when the producer called upon her to contribute vocals to his acclaimed 2011 album ROME. It was Jones’ singular voice that caught Burton’s attention as he began to conceptualize his homage to classic Italian film score music. He already had Jack White in mind for the male role, and he and his collaborator Daniele Luppi realized that Jones’ voice would give the project the perfect balance it needed. Jones contributed three standout songs to ROME including “Black” (a live version of which is included on this set) and their connection proved deep enough that they decided to collaborate again on Jones’ next studio album.

In a first for her, Jones arrived to the studio empty-handed – no tunes, no arrangements, just a few ideas in a notebook. The songs were all built from the ground up with Jones and Burton sharing all the songwriting credits and performing the majority of the instrumental parts; Jones on piano, keyboards, bass, and guitar, and Burton contributing drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, and string arrangements. The process was a complete change for Jones, but once they started it didn’t take long for her to warm to the challenges of creating on the fly using whatever resources she and Burton had between them. (Later, they brought in a band—including drummer Joey Waronker, bassist Gus Seyffert, and guitarist Blake Mills—to bolster many of the tracks.)