Being the impetuous, impatient type I've gone straight to Spotify (my preferred source anyway) rather than wait for the snailmail CD.

Interesting - I'd not heard her before.
Known as sNorah Jones in some parts. But, hey, some folks will say anything.

Track 1 - her voice sounds very much like "Heidi Happy" on Yello Touch at times. Which is a good thing. Quite liked it.
I had to skip rapidly on from the too-obviously jazzy track 2, as I was at risk of losing my breakfast. Yeuch.

Track 3 now.
Urgh. Jazzy. Not really my thing. I give up at this point.

Nice voice, though. Just needs material that is more to my taste!

You Bounder!

The CD did arrive earlier in the week - Tuesday, I think - but I just got round to listening to it today - before I did the washing. Hard week at work. Mentioning this as Paul does seem to a bit of a stickler for detail.

Got her first album when she was Hot News here in the UK after hearing the title track on the radio. Quite liked it overall. Never followed it up with her other albums - for no particular reason. Earlier in the year I buy the deluxe edition of "It's Too Late" with DVD which came up in a digipak search on EBay. I like digipak editions. But have yet to play it.

Not really one for offering a detailed critique of anything. So this is the bare bones observation:

Started out well with Track 1 and typical of what she does well. But then, things took a bit of slide with Track 2, and further still with Track 3. Even her vocals sounded a bit squashed here compared to the openness found on the other tracks. I can sense Martin wincing at this point. But then - things improved with Track 4, and continued with the remaining 8 tracks. I do like her pared down sound of vocals, piano, acoustic bass and drums best.

After a second playing, Tracks 2 & 3 which did disappoint initially, faired better.

Would I buy it? Well... Yes, actually - if only for the card sleeve!

Oh, I removed the front sticker and put it on some waxy paper, Martin.

See it was mastered at Sterling Sound. Wonder if Doug Sax is still alive.

Edit. See he died last year. Shame.

You could have cooked and eaten your roast first you know, I'm not that much of a stickler for the rules 

I approached this album with some trepidation as I had really liked her first album 'Come Away With Me' and quite liked her second 'Feels Like Home', her first being my favourite. I lost interest with 'Not Too Late' because I found myself thinking of every possible way I could do myself harm whilst listening to it, as for me it was such a depressive album.

Martin used to rave about her last album '...Little Broken Hearts' so I tried that and whilst I liked it more than 'Not Too Late' and found it a lot more upbeat, I still didn't feel she had taken us back to her best.

However, I am really enjoying 'Day Breaks' and believe she has cracked that balance between trying to cater for too many audiences and the tame and upbeat aspects of her sound. Whilst I liked 'Feels Like Home', I thought she tried a little too hard to make it fit the Jazz and Pop markets, where as this album is just right and it reminds me a lot of why I liked her on 'Come Away With Me' so much. Her Piano skills are outstanding and that voice is so, so smooth but strong and rich, superb.

It also helps that the songs are great and she clearly has a very good band with her, whilst the recording and production is pretty impressive too.

Thank you MartinT for the trial, I shall definitely be buying this album!

I liked the first track its reminds a bit of Billy Holiday and is well recorded but does not hold my attention enough to consider buying