Corinne Bailey Rae - Corinne Bailey Rae Album Review

Corinne Bailey Rae - Corinne Bailey Rae Album Review

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Album Review

Britain’s infatuation with snoozy-type MOR continues to thrive. This time its Leeds starling Corinne Bailey Rae’s turn to fall into the Norah Jones, Katie Melua slipstream. Nice is a word all music journalists should avoid. However, that’s what the general consensus seems to be about CBR’s debut album, and it is. Even so, the Yorkshire lass currently tops the albums after only 3 weeks in the chart (w/c 20 March). Propelled by radio - friendly gem Put Your Records On (the only really impressionable song), this collection will make every coffee table in the land: maybe that’s the danger zone .Vocally, she’s in the fragile Nelly Furtado league, (or possibly Gill Scott and Vivian Green), though the music has more depth and breadth. In the mix is a very clever fusion of jazzy, mostly soulful (sometimes R’n’B) ballads that will melt your heart away, even if you’re a bloke.

Song construction, soundscapes, and production are dream-like. The songs themselves are inoffensive, accessible, and deeply melodic… and… jolly nice. Leaving your mark is a different ball game, and one can’t help fell she’s yet to do that, when comparisons with Billie Holliday are quite outrageous.

Missing, is the real killer and indelible song that’s actually interesting and groundbreaking – maybe that’s to come. For now, we’re left with pretty poems put to sophisticated music, which isn’t actually ‘pop’ at its core. I think the album’s cover sums it all up. Lazy opener, Just Like A Star plods too much to make that ‘first impression’, though her voice, the main feature of the album, holds it together ‘nicely’. A similar mood ensues on Enchantment – surely by now there should have been more adventure. After the single we’re effectively back to the start on Till It Happens To You, and a later Choux Pastry Heart with Trouble Sleeping taking a more ambient pace. Track 9, I’d Like To, Bailey throws caution to the wind a la Joss Stone: you finally might wanna get up and dance… well almost.

Closing as it started, Seasons Change limps out at a predictable pace.

When the ‘new soul siren’ tag is being flashed about so quickly, it’s too easy to lose sight of what soul singing is all about – it comes from the soul, whereas Rae is currently coming from the head. There’s a huge difference which Joss Stone is still coming to terms with. Soul music or R’n’B can be challenging: this album isn’t, but perhaps it wasn’t meant to be.

Right now, Nelly Furtado and the brilliant Macy Gray are off the music radar – it might happen to CBR unless the next album has more to offer.

Elly Roberts

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