| The Sea | ||||
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| Studio album by Corinne Bailey Rae | ||||
| Released | 20 January 2010 (see release history) |
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| Recorded | 2009 Limefield Studios (Manchester, England) |
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| Genre | Soul, folk, pop, rock, jazz | |||
| Length | 42:46 | |||
| Label | EMI | |||
| Producer | Steve Brown, Steve Chrisanthou, Corinne Bailey Rae | |||
| Corinne Bailey Rae chronology | ||||
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| Singles from The Sea | ||||
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The Sea is the second studio album by English singer-songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae, released 20 January 2010 on EMI. It is the follow-up to her eponymous debut album and was conceived following her hiatus from recording, taken in the wake of her husband Jason Rae's death. Production for the album took place at Limefield Studios in Manchester, England during 2009 and was handled by Rae, Steve Brown, and Steve Chrisanthou. Incorporating musical elements of folk, pop, jazz, and rock music, The Sea features songs written by Rae both before and after her husband's death with themes of love, lament, and solace.
The album debuted at number five on the UK Albums Chart, selling 22,914 copies in its first week. It also entered at number seven on the US Billboard 200 chart with first-week sales of 53,000 copies. Upon its release, The Sea received generally positive reviews from most music critics. It was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry in February 2010, following shipments of 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom. As of April 2010[update], the album has sold 156,000 copies in the United States. It has been nominated for the 2010 Mercury Prize, which is awarded annually for the best album in the UK or Ireland.
Contents |
Following the multi-platinum and award-winning success of her eponymous debut album, Corinne Bailey Rae began to work on songs for a follow-up album at the end of 2007.[1] However, she took a hiatus from recording and the music scene after the death of Bailey Rae's husband, Scottish saxophonist Jason Rae,[2] in March 2008 to an accidental overdose of methadone and alcohol.[1][3] After months of grief and isolation, Rae revisited her work the following year and composed additional material for The Sea.[1][2] Recording sessions for the album took place primarily at Limefield Studios in Manchester during 2009,[2] and production was handled by Rae with co-producers Steve Brown and Steve Chrisanthou.[1] During the recording process, Rae listened to Curtis Mayfield's There's No Place Like America Today (1975) and Sly & the Family Stone's Fresh (1973), as well as the music of Nina Simone and Leonard Cohen.[2] According to Rae, a live band was implemented in the album's recording, which was a departure from her debut album, stating "On the first album, it was me and a producer in a basement going though hundreds of snare drum sounds to find the right one. With a live band, you can stretch out more and try new things out without feeling you're having to undo this meticulously built-up track".[2] In an interview with Pete Lewis of Blues & Soul, Rae discussed the album's title and its significance to the music, stating:
I just felt that lyrically, throughout the course of the album, there seemed to be a lot of water coming into play. You know, in addition to the song 'The Sea' itself, I also wrote about the sea on 'Diving For Hearts'; while on 'I Would Like To Call It Beauty' there was reference to water... Plus I also felt the actual SOUND of the record had a kind of tidal movement to it too, in the way that we recorded the songs. You know, sometimes it would just be me and my guitar. Then we'd really sort of swell up into these big arrangements, only to then retreat back to it just being me and my guitar again."[4]—Corinne Bailey Rae
The Sea contains songs written before and after Jason Rae's death.[3] According to Rae, most of the songs carry personal themes.[3] In an interview with NME, Bailey Rae discussed process of making music, particularly the song "Are You Here", which deals with her grief over her husband's death, stating "I feel like I've been playing music and writing and using music to help me with all the different emotions that I've been feeling. When I started writing that I was thinking, 'I don't really want this song to go into the world, 'cause it's so naked…' But I had to".[5] In an interview with The Observer's Sean O'Hagan, Rae discussed the effects of her husband's death on her musical style and the songs written before and after her hiatus, stating "What surprises me most is how the songs I wrote before it happened resonate almost as much as the ones I wrote after. The circumstances have cast it all in a different light. It began as a 'before and after' record, but it's become an 'after' record".[2] On the song "I Would Like to Call it Beauty", Rae discussed its theme of finding beauty in the "darkest times" and its relationship with The Sea, stating "There is something miraculous that pushes you along, makes you keep going, makes you carry on. It's really about the mystery of that. In fact, the whole album is about that in a way; it's about loss but it's also about hope, about keeping going and trying to find that beauty".[2]
The Sea was initially released on 20 January 2010 in Japan through EMI Music Japan.[6] Its release in the United States followed on 26 January 2010 through Capitol Records,[7] and in the United Kingdom on 1 February 2010 through EMI.[8] The album was also released in Brazil on 15 February 2010 through EMI.[9] The album was offered free of charge with a subscription to Q magazine, ending 15 April 2010.[10]
Rae presented material from The Sea along with her earlier songs on November 23, 2009 performance at The Tabernacle in London,[1] her first complete gig since her hiatus from the music scene.[11] Music critics that reviewed the performance perceived a grittier, organic sound and singing, with more soul and jazz influences and darker, more personal themes than Rae's previous work.[11][12][13][14] Rae also showcased songs from the album on December 7, 2009 at New York City's Hiro Ballroom.[15] The performance was recorded for the public television series Live from the Artists Den.[15] She also previewed the album at Joe's Pub on December 9, 2009, with ticket sales benefiting Pump Aid.[16] The album's supporting tour, The Sea Tour, began its European leg on 27 February 2010 in London, and featured singer-songwriter Daniel Merriweather as Rae's opening act.[17] It is set to begin its North American leg on 9 April 2010.[17]
Three singles were released in promotion of the album.[18] Its first single "I'd Do It All Again" was released 12 January 2010.[7] The album's second single, "Paris Nights/New York Mornings", was released 29 March 2010.[19] It spent three weeks on the Japan Hot 100, peaking at number 31.[20] "Closer" was issued to radio on 25 January 2010 in the United States.[21] It spent 15 weeks and peaked at number 31 on the US R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart,[22] and it spent six weeks and peaked at number 20 on the US Jazz Songs chart.[23] "Closer" was released as the album's third single on 2 August 2010.[24][25][26]
The album debuted at number five on the UK Albums Chart with first week sales of 22,914 copies.[27][28] It dropped to number 15 in its second week on the chart.[29] In the United States, The Sea debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200 chart, selling 53,000 copies in its first week.[30] It fell to number 23 and sold 25,000 more copies in its second week on the chart.[31] The album also entered at number two on Billboard's R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and at number three on its Digital Albums chart in the week of February 13, 2010.[32][33] In Canada, the album debuted at number 13 on the Top 100 Albums chart in the week ending 4 February 2010.[34] It entered at number 36 in the Netherlands and at number 33 in Ireland.[35] On 19 February 2010, the album was certified gold in sales by the British Phonographic Industry, following shipments in excess of 100,000 copies in the UK.[36] As of April 2010[update], it has sold 156,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.[37]
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | [38] |
| Entertainment Weekly | (B+)[39] |
| The Guardian | [40] |
| The Independent | [41] |
| Los Angeles Times | [42] |
| PopMatters | (7/10)[43] |
| Rolling Stone | [44] |
| Slant Magazine | [45] |
| Spin | (6/10)[46] |
| Uncut | [47] |
The Sea received positive reviews from most music critics.[48] At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 77, based on 20 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".[48] Critics viewed it as a sign of artistic growth and maturity for Rae.[38][49][50][51][52][53] Allmusic editor David Jeffries gave the album four out of five stars and called it "a testament to Rae’s artistic growth".[38] Kitty Empire of The Observer commented that it is "saturated in feeling and graced by superior musicianship", commenting that her songwriting and singing have "acquired reflective, ghostly soul".[54] Entertainment Weekly's Simon Vozick-Levinson called her voice "as eloquent an instrument as ever".[39] Boston Herald critic Jed Gottlieb gave The Sea a B+ rating and called it a "soulful record that recalls Carole King as much as Aretha".[55] Rob Watson of musicOMH gave the album four-and-a-half out of five stars and called it "a dense, lush and muti-faceted record, with Rae's melodic sensibilities mixing with much darker jazz and rock influences, and her carefree spirit tempered with a much more meditative approach".[56] The Independent's Andy Gill compared the album to the work of Laura Nyro, Marvin Gaye, and Joni Mitchell.[41] Alastair McKay of Uncut stated "[Rae] has taken on board the way Nina Simone could flick a switch between absent-minded harmonising and entering the abyss".[47] New York Daily News writer Jim Farber complimented the album's "unusually crisp sound" and wrote that Rae's "vocal twists and turns sound magically organic".[57]
However, Slant Magazine's Nick Day found it "simultaneously intimate and frustratingly opaque", and its music as "unmemorable".[45] Despite complimented Rae's singing, Hot Press writer Patrick Freyne panned the session musicians' contributions and "excessive tastefulness" to the album, writing that "the record is elsewhere over-run with session musicians. Technically proficient but too often unburdened by human souls, session musicians spent much of the twentieth century digesting the ‘hard bits’ of pop before regurgitating it all in music that didn’t need hard bits in the first place. This phenomenon might be described as the ‘plague’ of session musicians".[58] Digital Spy's Mayer Nissim gave it three out of five stars and wrote that it "shows real growth for Rae as a songwriter and musician", but viewed its "smooth production" as a flaw.[52] In a mixed review, The Observer's Graeme Thompson wrote that the album "is capable of being dull and flat, but at its most winning it provides glimpses of a new horizon shining beyond the riptides of pain and sorrow".[59] Mikael Wood of Spin called it "a darker, grittier effort suffused with a kind of shell-shocked melancholy", stating "Rae is most compelling when trying to distract herself from her loss".[46] Will Hermes of Rolling Stone called it "both reckoning and rebirth".[44] The New Zealand Herald's Jacqueline Smith gave the album four out of four stars and commended Rae's "honest emotion".[60]
The Daily Telegraph, The Belfast Telegraph, and The Sunday Times gave the album four out of five stars and lauded its personal lyrical nature.[61][62][63] Craig McLean of The Daily Telegraph called it "the intense and moving result" of Rae's hiatus and described it as "an album that suggests Nina Simone singing a modern version of Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks".[64] Ken Capobianco of The Boston Globe described The Sea as "richer, much less accessible" than Rae's debut album, "and marked by a sense of loss and introspection".[65] Steve Leftridge of PopMatters also found it "richer" than her debut, with a "darker and more sophisticated sonic palette", stating "The Sea often captures the debut’s languorous delivery, yet the adult-contemporary coffee-house vibe has given way to deeper grooves, sonorous landscapes, and contemplative, poetic imagery".[43] Newsday's Glen Gamboa gave the album an A rating and called it "far heavier, more substantial" than Rae's debut album.[66] Evening Standard writer John Aizlewood interpreted the sense of loss in the album's themes to be "allied to a musical adventurism which banishes for ever the blander aspects of her debut".[67] USA Today's Elysa Gardner perceived Rae as "more pensive" and "soulful" on The Sea than on her debut album.[68] Los Angeles Times writer Ann Powers stated "The Sea is a remarkable accomplishment. It's a step toward something--Rae's inner peace, and her next artistic breakthrough--that has its own considerable rewards".[42]
The Sea has been nominated for the 2010 Mercury Prize, which is awarded annually for the best album in the UK or Ireland.[69]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Are You Here" | Corinne Bailey Rae | 4:13 |
| 2. | "I'd Do It All Again" | Rae | 3:08 |
| 3. | "Feels Like the First Time" | Rae, Steve Brown | 3:13 |
| 4. | "The Blackest Lily" | Rae | 3:38 |
| 5. | "Closer" | Rae | 4:17 |
| 6. | "Love's on Its Way" | Rae | 3:55 |
| 7. | "I Would Like to Call It Beauty" | Rae, Philip Rae | 4:19 |
| 8. | "Paris Nights/New York Mornings" | Rae | 3:51 |
| 9. | "Paper Dolls" | Rae | 3:20 |
| 10. | "Diving for Hearts" | Rae, Jennifer Birch | 4:51 |
| 11. | "The Sea" | Rae | 4:05 |
| Bonus tracks | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length | ||||||
| 12. | "Little Wing" (iTunes / Japan bonus) | Jimi Hendrix | 4:07 | ||||||
| 13. | "It Be's That Way Sometime" (iTunes pre-order / Japan bonus) | Samuel Waymon | 3:28 | ||||||
Credits for The Sea adapted from Allmusic.[70]
Chart positions
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Year-end charts
Sales and certifications
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| Region | Date | Label |
|---|---|---|
| Japan | 20 January 2010[6] | EMI Music Japan |
| United States | 26 January 2010[7] | Capitol |
| United Kingdom | 1 February 2010[8] | EMI |
| Brazil | 15 February 2010[9] |
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