Review: New boxed sets show the early artistic growth of David Bowie and Norah Jones

POP/ROCK

David Bowie, "A Divine Symmetry (An Alternate Journey Through Hunky Dory)" (Rhino)

Bowie became a star with 1972's "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars." But he first established himself as a truly promising artist of vision with 1971's "Hunky Dory." This four-CD/one-Blu-ray disc set compiles studio recordings — including 48 previously unreleased tracks (some arresting, some meh) — and demo versions of "Hunky Dory" songs, along with live recordings and BBC radio sessions. This package documents the sound of an artist who was quickly finding his feet, bursting with ideas and eager to capture them. "Divine Symmetry" does exactly that. It captures Bowie experimenting, hitting musical dead ends, then trying different approaches. This boxed set is a vivid reminder that perseverance can be just as essential as talent.

GEORGE VARGA, San Diego Union-Tribune

Norah Jones, "Come Away With Me (20th Anniversary)" (Blue Note)

The hushed jazz-country-folk-pop amalgam of this blockbuster debut album didn't come out of nowhere. Jones had to home in on it along a winding path that led through music school, New York City jazz-brunch gigs that people talked through, homesickness for country music from her childhood in Texas, demos she made with songwriter friends in New York City and all-star recording sessions in Woodstock, N.Y. Those sessions, rejected by Blue Note Records before Jones tried again with her friends, are unveiled on this expanded reissue, and they reveal an artist quietly finding her own voice, one of elegant modesty. The rejected sessions, newly released, offer a lesson in musical chemistry. With musicians who were skillful but not her regular collaborators, Jones both deferred to her better-known accompanists and pushed her voice a little too hard. Although there are luminous moments, like her versions of Horace Silver's "Peace" and Tom Waits' "Picture in a Frame," the results were capable but not quite right.

JON PARELES, New York Times