Bailey Rae delivers heart-felt songs in new album



By Latifah Muhammad
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer


What do you get when you mix the smooth sounds of Sade with the exquisite writing of Erykah Badu? You get Corrine Bailey Rae.

The 26-year-old English singer/song-writer’s second self-titled album is a perfect balance of music that tells a soulful story of love and all its ups-and-downs.

“ Put You Records On” shows Rae’s up-tempo side, commanding the listener to let her hair down and play her favorite song. The appeal of Rae’s album is centered in her unique ability to use her voice as a sultry instrument that never goes above a whisper but shows her range of emotions.

The song, “Til It Happens to You” could be pulled out of a 1940s blues club performance and shows Rae’s wide range of music that has influenced her. It paints a picture of a woman chronicling the butterflies someone gets when he or she firsts meet someone, and how those feelings fade as love and reality both set in. This open letter to her lover shows her talent for heartfelt expression that comes from the depths of her soul, without being boisterous or hateful.

She switches gears with “Butterfly” in which Rae softly sings an ode to her mother. The melody showers the listener with memories of sunny days and an irreplaceable carefree childhood.

The smooth transition to “Choux Pastry Heart” allows Rae to describe the confusion of heartbreak. The pain in her voice translates to a sorrow that makes her want to crawl to a safe place and stay there until, as she puts it, “never dawns.”

Every track on her album flows together in a perfect array of stories, proving although they are few and far between, there are still artist who write their own music and play their own instruments.  With each song, Rae plays a new character, speaking so candidly you’d swear she was a friend talking to you on the phone about her experiences.

According to an article published by the BBC News, Rae has been compared to musical legends Billie Holiday and Lauren Hill. Such compliments are not far fetched. This album has no guest appearances, no mainstream American producers, no big-budget music videos, but yet it still manages to catch your ear taking you on a 46-minute trip to see life and love through her eyes.

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