Darker sound for heartbroken Norah Jones

JONES. Intriguing departure from leisurely soulful melodies.

Weird…but in a good way. That was our initial reaction to Norah Jones’ provocative fifth recording, “Little Broken Hearts,” which takes her to a darker territory as she muses about heartbreak, betrayal and regret. Her “inspiration”: Her harsh breakup with her fiction-writer boyfriend.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the multifaceted songstress puts her surprising new sound in perspective: “The album is all about saying things that needed to be said. I’m not sad, but there’s a lot of hurt in there. I’ve always heard stories about how you write better songs when you go through a breakup. —That sucks, but it’s true!”

The Lynchian spin on her music is an intriguing departure from the leisurely soulful melodies that catapulted Jones to pop-music stardom (she was named Billboard’s top jazz artist of the past decade). This time, her smoky voice has more urgency, but she mines her heartbreak with melancholy and plaintive introspection more than anger (the deliciously idiosyncratic “Take It Back”).

Emotional journey

The repertoire follows the singer’s intense emotional journey: In the dramatic title track, she plays the blame game with a stirring subtext of regret: “You don’t have to tell the truth coz if you do, I’ll tell it, too/ When the beautiful awake, see the sadness in their eyes/ Will they want to find a way to make it all right?”

In “Good Morning,” she intimates that her decision to let go wasn’t an easy one: “My thoughts on leaving are back on the table/ Maybe powerful feelings will keep me from going/ I’m folding my hand.”

Then, in “She’s 22” and “Miriam,” she sings about hurt and betrayal: “Does she make you happy?/ I’m standing still on this hidden hill/ And I’m looking around for the right way down to your distant valley.”

Jones doesn’t want to stay “in the dark” for long, though—she wants to move on, as she laments in “Travelin’ On.” Moreover, there’s wistful optimism in the album’s catchiest track, “Out On The Road”: “I’m leaving/ A little voice says, ‘Don’t look back if you want things to change’/ Guess I’ll have to love you from afar.”

Gotye

GOTYE. Rich musicality and old-world sensibility.

Like the indie-pop trio, Foster The People (“Pumped-Up Kicks”), we’re also psyched up about the rich musicality and old-world sensibility of Gotye’s eclectic pop sound. The Belgian-Australian singer-songwriter is now in the spotlight, because his irresistible collaboration with New Zealand’s Kimbra, “Somebody That I Used to Know,” earned the No.1 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart last week.

The song gained more hit-making traction after it was performed by Darren Criss and Matthew Bomer on “Glee,” Lindsey Pavao on “The Voice,” and Elise Testone and Phillip Phillips on “American Idol.” Gotye is the first Australian to reach the top of the pop-singles chart since Savage Garden achieved the same feat in 2000, for the mushy ballad, “I Knew I Loved You.”