It never occurred to me until I was ruffling through our lp section that Laura Nyro's 1968

ground breaker, Eli & the 13th Confession, not only vocally resembles Norah Jones' jazzy-pop debut, but also both album covers are freakishly identical. Imagine that? The angle, the light,

the hush pose, even the white cursive font is a near facsimile of the lone piano companion. In 1967 Nyro performed most of the album's turbulent songs at the Monetary Pop Festival where Norah Jones' future father, Ravi Shankar, would later end the concert with a steaming raga that has since become a entranced moment within the legacy of the "Summer of Love". Nyro's new stylistic mode would eventually pave the way for singers such as Phoebe Snow and even Kate Bush. And today, her distinct soulster pitch shamelessly echoes throughout the verses of Amy Winehouse's bellowing "Rehab" song. Perhaps modern music has become so narcissistic that the only way it can balance its levels is by imitating and combining the trends that have been commercially (not always idealistically) successful in the past. Either that or most pop music is mixed down by a kid my age with lap-top sitting in a Brooklyn apartment watching Aqua Teen Hunger Force. What would Laura think?

-cwa