SmartMusic: 6 New CDs

Before holiday music takes over the airwaves around us, here are some new releases from folk-jazz singer Norah Jones, roots-rocker Tom Petty and the eagerly awaited debut album from "American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert. If you want information on your commute, we have a couple of audio books – Malcolm Gladwell narrating his engaging essays on interesting social phenomena and Seth Godin reading a new version of his bestseller "Purple Cow," about changes in marketing. For classical music fans, Cecilia Bartoli is back, here with a recording of beautiful rarities from the Baroque era.

The Fall

Norah Jones’s followed her "Come Away With Me," one of the biggest albums of the last decade, with two albums that continued to feature her laid-back soul-country-jazz vibe.

On her fourth album, she gives her songs a slightly harder edge, working with musicians who’ve supported R.E.M, Elvis Costello, Beck and Tom Waits, among others, although the overall sound is distinctively Norah Jones. She is silky-voiced and intimate, even on up-tempo numbers like the lead-off track, “Cashing Pirates” and the moderate rocker “It’s Gonna Be.”

Certain tunes have less of a Starbucks-contemporary jazz feel than those on Jones’s breakthrough album, but the songbird’s fans will recognize her breathy intimacy on such numbers as “December” and “I Wouldn’t Need You.”
The Fall isn’t a stark departure from Norah Jones’s signature sound, but a progression from her sleepy romantic crooning into mid-tempo roots-rock that remains accessible and likely to be the soundtrack at many a coffee house around the world.

The Live Anthology

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are one of the most enduring American rock ensembles, whose distinctive sound – guided by Petty’s reedy but powerful voice – hasn’t dated in three decades.

Indeed, Petty has influenced generations of roots-rockers and his influence can even be heard in Pearl Jam, Wilco and contemporary country music.

This four-CD set is a collection of live tracks and videos recorded at concerts over 27 years, from venues as diverse as the Fillmore in San Francisco to London’s Wembley Stadium. It includes iconic hits such as “Refugee,” “Free Fallin’” and “Here Comes My Girl” as well as selected covers, like “Goldfinger.”

What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures

The author of the influential bestsellers "The Tipping Point," "Outliers" and "Blink" reads his new collection of essays here. The essay length is ideal for those who want short takes from Gladwell on his interesting look at aspects of everyday life as it relate to conventional wisdom and society.

Essays here include Gladwell’s discussions of the varieties of mustard (vs. ketchup), a portrait of inventor Ron Popeil (Ronco’s Chop-O-Matic, among others), personality tests, Ivy League admissions policies and more.

He’s interested in the connections among seemingly disparate yet related areas. In one instance, for example, Gladwell examines the problems with perception, such as when he spent an spent an afternoon with a radiologist looking at mammograms and the radiologist imagined that the problems he had in accurately reading breast X-rays might have been similar to those the CIA had in looking at satellite photos those that purportedly showed weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Gladwell reads these essays, which appeared in The New Yorker, in a husky, conversational voice – capturing his own prose style without fuss.