CD Review: Corinne Bailey Rae
Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: Music
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The Sea
(EMI)
Grade: A-
There's no doubt that heartache can create beautiful art. Though, it's assumed that if it were up to British soul and R&B artist Corinne Bailey Rae, she would easily give up the beauty of her new disc, The Sea, to have her husband back.
Bailey Rae's husband, a fellow musician she met in college, died of a drug overdose in 2008 after a seven-year marriage. Devastated and heartbroken, she left the music scene for two years to gather her thoughts and emotions. During that time, she wrote The Sea. She takes us on her journey, offering a brutally honest introspective look at life after a loved one's death with songs like the coping mechanism "Are You Here," which shows off her sultry-but-sweet style and "I'd Do it All Again," which would be a ballad of utter fearlessness if it weren't spiked with a touch of vulnerability. That very characteristic is what makes The Sea real. It's not a disc jammed only with love lost ballads. Bailey Rae shakes it up on the groovy, modern "The Blackest Lily" and "Paris Nights/New York Mornings."
In a time where so many starting-out musicians put out safe, lackluster second releases, Bailey Rae shines. If only she didn't have to crawl through hell to get there.
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