DecoyMusic.com

Sign Up | Login Forgot your password?

Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea

Rating

RIYL

Alicia Keys
Angus and Julia Stone
Joss Stone
Adele

Release Date

01/26/2010

Label

Capitol Records

Tracklist

1. Are You Here
2. I’d Do It All Again
3. Feels Like The First Time
4. The Blackest Lily
5. Closer
6. Loves On Its Way
7. I Would Like To Call It Beauty
8. Paris Nights/New York Mornings
9. Paper Dolls
10. Diving For Hearts
11. The Sea

Users Rating 1 rating	Your Rating Create an account or log in to rate this album
Recent Ratings
thetsaiguy

The Sea is a lavish album – one that doesn’t really require familiarity with Corinne Bailey Rae or her back catalog to steroidify its soul wit. It wouldn’t hurt to know, though, that Rae is coming off the tragic death of her husband, saxophonist Jason Rae, on the album. But even if you didn’t, you would still be able to catch a strong whiff of tragedy since the shadow of unrecoverable love and irredeemable mistakes suffocate the lyrics like a wet napkin over an insect. The music cues you in too – Rae croons, wails and belts her mourning, helping listeners experience her sorrow in multiple dynamics. It’s a sad album, likely written with catharsis in mind.

The beginning crawls to make the most of its elegance. “Are You Here” opens with Rae testing the waters with her delicate vocals. Her soft, child-like pronunciation here draws comparisons to Julia Stone from Australian pop-duo Angus and Julia Stone, but it doesn’t last long. She gains confidence quickly, transitioning to a Thom Yorke falsetto, and then to full-fledged singing. “I’d Do It All Again” uses a similar mode of progression, starting out nice and calm but gradually evolving into a loud and desperate yearn. The song is about times she fought with her husband, but also about how their love for each other transcended their arguments and how their relationship was worth it in the end. “And out runs all the sadness / It’s terrifying, life through the darkness / And I’d do it all again, I’d do it all again,” sings Rae at the top of her lungs, and you can hear the passion with which she asserts the “I’d do it all again.” It could be the most tear-jerking song on the album.

Then things get more eccentric. Keys appear on “Feels Like The First Time” and “The Blackest Lily” to give the former a more haunting, bluesy drawl and the latter, a sassy romp. “Closer” is the most soulful number, blunt about its purpose: “Your loving is so good, so good, the Closer / I want it, I want it / Into me,” while “Love On Its Way” is a sprawling, spine-tingling masterpiece about love’s role in administering justice. “Paris Nights/New York Mornings” capitalizes on an infectious chorus and makes its upbeat, idealistic romance an album highlight. Elsewhere, “Diving For Hearts” is gorgeous for its poetic lyrics about how the love between two people is, “So insignificant spinning out in / The velvet dark.”

The Sea achieves catharsis. It really does. On the closing track Rae admits that, “The sea / Breaks everything / Crushes everything / Cleans everything / Takes everything from me,” and then bids farewell to her husband: “Goodbye, goodbye, paradise.” But it all takes place over a glorious and uplifting tune, complete with strings and “whoah-oh’s.” There’s hope, Rae seems to write, and then she steps into its glowing light, ready to begin life anew. Emotions: relieved.

--Matthew Tsai