It’s astonishing to think that Rickie Lee Jones would turn out an album this organic and free of cynicism 30 years after her debut with the star-making, retro-hipster hit “Chuck E.’s in Love.” Particularly since her songwriting has always been so acutely self-aware.
Nonetheless, this beautiful disc needs only her sweet muted-trumpet voice and optimistic viewpoint to sail gracefully through its 10 songs, which range from the ’40s-style guitar chamber jazz of “The Moon Is Made of Gold” to the moaning, feedback-dappled hymn to transcendence that’s “His Jeweled Floor.” So it’s a bonus that Vic Chesnutt and Victoria Williams join her to form a chorus on the latter, and that Ben Harper adds his honeyed pipes to “Old Enough,” a song about an ebbing relationship, with a sunny doo-wop arrangement.
Alison Krauss also appears, crystallizing the country weeper “Remember Me” with her warm, expressive violin. Brimming with hope, Jones’s 14th album is a balm indeed.
RICKIE LEE JONES | Berklee Performance Center, 136 Mass Ave, Boston | December 6 at 7 pm | $33-$50 | ticketmaster.com or 800.745.3000
