If you want proof that God rarely dispenses joy without an equal measure of sorrow, you can look at the career of Corinne Bailey Rae.
In 2001, Corinne Bailey was the coat-check girl in a UK nightclub when she met saxophonist Jason Rae. He encouraged her to make singing more than a hobby. Five years later, her debut record made huge waves. It’s tempting to compare her to the other major British debuts of the period — Adele and Florence Welch — but Corinne was older than they were, released her record earlier, and received much less of a boost from the indie press.
In March of 2008, Jason Rae died from a mixture of methadone and alcohol. The record that Corinne released two years later, “The Sea”, is brilliant and heartbreaking all at once. The first two tracks, “Are You Here?” and “I’d Do It All Again”, serve as a one-two punch to any listener who knows that Corinne is singing about her dead husband. The final track, “The Sea”, ends like so
The sea,
The majestic sea,
Breaks everything,
Crushes everything,
Cleans everything,
Takes everything
From me
She didn’t tour much on the record and she kept out sight for six years.
Her new record is very much a “neo-soul” effort. I listened to it for the first time Monday night, and I was underwhelmed. It seemed like a continual assault of synth sub-bass. I gave it another chance in my headphones and mostly fell in love. This is one of those modern records that’s mixed for mid-fi systems. My current home stereo has wayyyy too much bass to reproduce it as anything but a dance record.
So after some consideration, I’m going to recommend this album without reservations. It’s probably the third best of her efforts, with “The Sea” as her finest work and the debut record between that and this one, but it will reward your attention. Particularly, if like me, you believe that there is value to be found in sorrow.
I have trouble understanding why people think I should be happy all the time. Sometimes I’m happy, sometimes I’m sad. Makes perfect sense to me. Perhaps I exeperience greater swings of the highs and lows. Bipolar they call it, is that necessarily bad either?
Great art is rarely produced by people who feel content all the time.
Plus people who are content/happy all the time are super boring.
This is also why Will Ferrel isn’t funny; he’s way too happy.
I’ve no idea how Ferrell is off-screen, but it’s not exactly uncommon for depressed people to come off as happy in public. Or become actual comedians. When your life is fucked up it might be easier to go to the other extreme when dealing with other people, and come off as overly happy. Act happy, or become a recluse. Nobody wants to deal with a depressed person for long.
I can’t count the times people have told me i’m an inspiration to them because how I’ve dealt with my injury. I never know what to say, other than “thanks”, and quickly make them laugh. I’ve always been good at making people laugh.
Maybe that’s why so many great musicians have been junkies. They’re searching for peace and contentment.
Isn’t that what everyone is looking for? Someone just finds it in religion or a tub of ice-cream, while others need something a bit stronger.. Failing that something, anything, to cover the pain of being unable to find anything even remotely resembling happiness.
Lots of Female Blues singers embrace life’s issues .
This doesn’t mean their music is sad .
-Nate
Her voice makes my spine crawl. Thanks for the update.
Somehow i’ve never heard of this woman before; had a listen to “The Sea” and will definitely listen to her more.
On a related bluesy note, this is Erja Lyytinen who is regarded as the best female blues guitarist here in Finland. Reminds me a bit of Roy Rogers in a all its slidey goodness. This might not be her best performance but what she does at around the 4:50 minute mark is fucking awesome.. No that might bee too clickbaity.. when the song is about to end she segues into “smoke on the water” and it’s pretty fucking cool. The drummer takes a second or two to catch up with the changed tempo but the rhythm guitarist is caught a bit off guard and waits a bit to join in; but his fucking smile is bloody brilliant when he catches up around 10 secs later. Then they continue with “smoke” while she goes off on her own again. This is how a fucking band should work! Makes me smile like fucking Ricciardo every time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cwjxi9TnV4w
She plays G&L guitars if by any chance someone is interested in guitary things over here..
“A man walked up to me and said: Hey, you skinny girl, you gonna play some blues!? And I said, Hell Yeah!” http://youtu.be/a-GJAmmpg1Q?t=2m50s
She also seems to have a tendency to work a bit of AC/DC into her sets. And I cant’t be the only one that thinks unedited concerts recordings and radio gigs are nearly always more interesting than studio albums.
That’s what I call a G&L — Z-shaped MFD pickups and all!