By Odeisel
One album into her healing process from the loss of her husband (2010’s The Sea), Corinne Bailey Rae returns an EP of covers entitled The Love. The ambitious album challenges the original work of some of music’s most celebrated artists, including Prince, Paul McCartney and Bob Marley, as well as standard classic “Que Sera Sera,” which Rae tackles live. The result is a balanced work that showcases Rae’s talent, exposes the greatness of the original compositions and retains a surprise or two.
Corinne’s version of “I Want To Be Your Lover” is a departure from the original is some subtle, yet stark ways. Bailey-Rae’s crisp, precision notes lack the frenetic passion of Prince that makes the original so powerful. While she retains the same general production some of the analog is replaced with synth and digital, which also bleeds soul from the track.
She recovers with her approach to Bob Marley’s “Is The Love.” The song is a gospel deconstruction of the track with different inferences and a subtle alteration of cadence that changes the musical identity of the song. It’s the right thing not to challenge Marley in his one element and the alteration totally works.
Bailey’s soft, feminine, breathy notes and acoustic soul alters the feel of McCartney’s (And The Wing’s) “My Love.” Gone is the drama of those strings and added instrumentation from the original. The absence of that drum and bassline puts the onus clearly on shoulders of the vocals and Corinne delivers a determined minimalist melancholy soul to the track for another successful makeover. The crisp soft gravel on some of her notes is subtly charming in a way that a man would be unable to replicate.
The hard-rocking “Low Red Moon” is generally faithful to Belly’s original in rhythm and feel , but unfortunately misses the organ underpinnings on the bridge which added the emotional range of the original. The song itself vacillates from somber to hard charging and Bailey Rae’s version adopts a harder rock guitar. Vocally Bailey’s stronger, jazzy precision fits her version but lacks the emotional range and stoner spookiness of the Belly version.
Corrine challenges the mighty Sly & The Family Stone alongside a male vocalist (John McCallum) for their version of “Que Sera Sera.” It’s funky Neo Soul with a low, grinding performance that attempts to draw all of the emotion from the song. It’s lovely on its own, but Sly’s version will move you to tears with its gospel funk fusion and soulful vocal delivery. Corinne’s does a strong contemporary job of trying to match it emotionally but comes up short for musical rather than vocal reasons. While she was more precise and shaper than Rose Stone’s whisper soft delivery, McCallum could not meet Sly emotionally.
This smartly done EP finds a marvelously trained and talented singer tackling some of the most beautiful music ever made. Where she applies her strengths and aesthetic to the songs, she soars. When she stays in the vein of the original she comes up short, but even a million megawatt bulb pales before the sun, and when you’re going against Marley, McCartney, Prince and Sly, near the height of their powers, and not be compared laughably is sound accomplishment.
Out of 5
Follow Us on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/planetill
Follow Odeisel on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/odeisel
Join Us on the Planet Ill Facebook Group for more discussion
Follow us on Networked Blogs
3 thoughts on “Album Review: Corinne Bailey Rae – The Love (EP)”