One of the most hyped artists in recent memory

Her name is Corinne Bailey Rae. She is 27 years old, talented and very cute as well. Corinne Bailey Rae is already one of the most hyped artists in recent memory. With her first very limited edition EP Like A Star entering the UK Top 40 in November 2005 and the first single proper Put Your Records On becoming a Europe-wide smash, the world is at her feet. Added to that a mountain of incredible press articles singing her many praises, magazine front covers, sold-out tour dates and the kind of radio and TV play that established artists can only dream of, there seems to be no stopping Corinne. The release of her eponymous debut album will cement the fact that here is a brand new superstar. First and most obviously, there's the voice. Likened to all sorts of singers, from Billie Holiday through Lauryn Hill to Erykah Badu, it is pure honey. Warm, sweet, a little vulnerable here, powerful there, it's the perfect antidote to a freezing winter. Bailey Rae's voice has a rare intimacy about it that leads one to believe she's not behind speaker panels at all, but actually in the room. And she never shouts or screeches. Such a voice would be enough to propel her into the charts on its own, but it's just the most obvious of her talents. Bailey Rae is also a songwriter and penned every song on the album.

A romantic soul record filled with bluesy beats and luscious lyrics

This is a recording that displays a patchwork of influences all held together wonderfully by Bailey Rae's unique vocal stylings. 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. Current single, Put Your Records On, can’t help but make you think of summer, and it’s 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. I’d Like To, towards the end of the album, is the bounciest, sassiest effort. Horns and bass punch it through, and Corinne floats over it like a butterfly in a breeze. Bailey Rae has crafted a pleasant album going someway to confirm the 'soulful Norah Jones' tag, which many have applied to Corinne's music. The Leeds girl manages to keep her British roots whilst taking inspiration from the American greats. The result is a romantic soul record filled with bluesy beats and luscious lyrics sung by one of the best new voices in Britain.

Corinne Bailey Rae’s root theme is love

Our heroine is not fresh from performance school at all but rather someone who's been plugging her music – first as part of Leeds band Helen, then solo – for some years now. There's the hop-skip of genre crossings that influence the songs, rooting jazz in melodic pop via chilled out soul. Like all really great artist albums, this record has a variety of single-strength songs but hangs together as an album too. Bailey Rae’s root theme is love. She's been around enough to know that love is about more than boy meets girl and that it's something to be worked at. But while her work ethic is commendable, and her perspective on what makes for a relationship perceptive, she finds time too for memories of good times with friends. This is a decidedly positive record, one based on lyrics that suggest Bailey Rae has lived through enough experience to be interesting, without being melodramatic. This is not the sound of a hard done by kid on an estate, but rather a lady in her prime who seems to be doing fine – and is happy to say so. For that and so much more, Corinne Bailey Rae is a breath of fresh air. She lives up to the massive hype surrounding the release of her self-titled debut album. It may be freezing cold outside but one listen of this record and you'll know summer is on its way.

20.03.2006

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