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Corinne Bailey Rae - Corinne Bailey Rae Corinne Bailey Rae has got the kind of voice that can get people who hate R&B (in the modern sense) to listen to R&B. And in that sense she can be compared to say, Vivian Green, perhaps even Jill Scott. Like a Star opens the album, and could be the latest Zero 7 track, thanks to the lush orchestration that builds throughout. Softer than a duvet made of marshmallow, warmer than a ray of window-shaped sunlight across a bedroom floor, immediately you know the mood this album is going for.
Second track, Enchantment, is even less charged, and you sink further back into the general warm fuzziness. It’s like a Radox bath for your ears. Mmm…refreshing.
Current single, Put Your Records On, can’t help but make you think of summer, and it’s ever so slightly more upbeat. Despite the concentrated airplay it’s been getting, and will continue to get, it stands up as a great track. It’s an old fashioned kind of song, and one can’t help think of Motown, or those Brill Building classics. That in itself is evidence enough that we need to pay attention to Corinne Bailey Rae. Most of the songs have been written in conjunction with other writers, but they’re all, ahem, singing from the same songsheet. The album is extremely focused in making a sound that’s consistently out of focus, at any rate.
And whilst that’s the appeal of this lazy Sunday afternoon collection, it’s also the problem. By the end you might well find yourself hoping to have heard that beautiful voice stretched just that little bit more. Good R&B though it might be (an incredibly rare commodity), it’s crying out for a little bit more soul. Track 5, Call Me When You Get This, hints that she’s capable of being more direct and charged, but a hint is all it is. It’s almost suitable for a barbeque soundtrack, but still it’s more for a post-meat nap than a bring the people together for a little dance number.
Saying that, I’d Like To, towards the end of the album, is a personal favourite, and it’s no coincidence that this is the bounciest, sassiest effort. Horns and bass punch it through, and Corinne floats over it like a butterfly in a breeze. It’d be great to hear her fronting the Quantic Soul Orchestra, albeit for something a little mellower that your typical Alice Russell belter.
So, in the end, while each song is well-written, well arranged, well produced, and beautifully sang, overall, because of the laid-back delivery, they just don’t hit you like they could. But then, to criticize an album for something it’s not even trying to do seems churlish. Corinne’s a great talent no doubt, but you might find yourself playing this album on a soft Sunday post-party, rather than on the way to work, or from it for a night out. But when that’s what she wanted you to do, who are we to complain. Anyway, I’m feeling a little drowsy now. Where’s that hammock?
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