Girl Go Ahead Let Your Hair Down

As we entered this new decade, one genre that has seemed to disappear from the musical landscape has been R&B. Don’t talk to me about Usher or Ciara because that type of R&B has been taken over Hip-Hop influences. Yeah, it was novel when Mary J. Blige invented the sub-genre over ten years ago, but now that every R&B artist has Hip-Hop producers all over their albums, it’s become tiresome. Even Alicia Keys, whose first two albums were great, sometimes lets Hip-Hop take over too much in her songs. When I talk about real R&B music, I’m talking about baby making music like Boyz II Men and Babyface.

Enter Corinne Bailey Rae and her self titled debut album. The English songbird has actually been able make an R&B record in 2006 that doesn’t have any Hip-Hop beats on it. Rae has been touted as a cross between Macy Gray and India.Arie but her voice is much more assessable than Gray’s (though it does take a little time to get used to) and goes far beyond Arie’s acoustic soul leanings. The comparison must come from the acoustic guitar driven second single Put Your Records On.

In fact on the album Rae is able to catch the vibe of R&B throughout the decade starting with the opener, Like a Star, a soft and stripped down song that evoke Billie Holiday. She then moves into the sixties with Trouble Sleeping which could have fit in easily at a time when Motown ruled. Then Call Me When You Get This with its pseudo-disco beat could have been played during the hey day of Studio 54. Breathless would have a good edition to any Anita Baker album. With the closing track, Seasons Change, Rae is even able to evoke Alicia Keys without the Hip-Hop beats.

This album may not be enough to bring back real R&B nor will it produced more babies than a Barry White release, but it’s definitely worth a listen to anyone who misses silky voices and are tired of aggravated drum beats. The diversity of the album, mixing a wide range of soul music as well as a wide variety of instruments from song to song, should keep Corinne Bailey Rae in music collections for years to come.

Song to Download - Trouble Sleeping

Corinne Bailey Rae gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.