By Armond

Beautiful, delicate, vulnerable, brave, dreamy, escape, remarkable= Corinne Bailey Rae.  Due in Atlanta tonight May 11, at Center Stage on West Peachtree this show is a must see (sold out).  The lovely songstress from Leeds will also make appearances in D.C. at the 930 Club and Baltimore's Ram's Head Live for those that can't get tickets to the Atlanta show and are down for a little road trip, (totally worth the expense).

Corinne has been on a whirlwind press and concert tour to promote her highly anticipated sophomore release "The Sea".  The album entered the billboard chart's top 10 during its first week of release and is totally deserving of its position.  "The Sea" is the first LP with material dated after the loss of her husband of 6 years to an accidental drug and alcohol overdose; even though most of the songs on the album were finished prior to his passing additional tracks allow you feel her pain and sorrow of such a tragic loss.  On tracks such as "I'd do it all again" the grief and sorrow seems like it will cause your eyes to pour a river.  "Loves on its way" is almost too much to bear as lines like "...I want to be able to say that I did more, more than pray..."; swallow you up with sympathetic thoughts (guaranteed lumps in your throats people).

Corinne talks about her goals and angle for this record as an attempt to harness the sounds of the 60s and 70s that she loved so much as a child.  She achieves that goal as well as shaking the comparisons to fellow Brit Amy Winehouse with gripping tracks such as "Paris Nights and New York Mornings" and "Closer".  "The Sea" offers a perfect blend of radio pop and earthy neo-soul you can even hear a touch of trip hop (channeling her influences from the band Massive Attack) on the track "Paper Dolls".

I'm happy to say there are no signs of the sophomore jinx for Mrs. Rae's second solo release. This latest record is top notch! Be sure to catch the UK song bird as she tours the US well into 2011 according to her website.