The second album is always a difficult feat and so many things are at stake. Expectation particularly is very high and it’s whether you make it or have ‘one-hit wonder’ stamped all over your face by the time the CDs hit the discount bin at the record store.

This is not the case for Corinne Bailey Rae, whose sophomore album ‘The Sea’ had been getting rave reviews from Q magazine, Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stones magazine. Even Details magazine recommended ‘The Sea’ as must-download album for the month of February. The album debuted at No.7 on US Billboard 200 album chart, which is the kind of success that most Brit artists could only dream off.

The process of writing and recording the album started in late 2007 with Rae drawing a lot of inspirations from records by the likes of Curtis Mayfield, Leonard Cohen and Nina Simone. But the process took a sudden hiatus after the tragic death of Rae’s husband, saxophonist Jason Rae. Corinne Bailey Rae took several months off before resuming the process and changes the direction of the album. The final cut is ‘The Sea’ which comprises of collection of songs before and after the tragedy. Rae described the theme of the album as about finding beauty in the ‘darkest time” and how it’s not totally about loss but also about hope and trying to find the beauty in it.

The lead single of the album is ‘I’d Do It All Again’ which video features Rae going about her daily life alone in repetitive mode. It’s melancholic yet deep with slightly dark emotions. The second single is ‘Paris Nights/New York Mornings’, a slightly up-tempo ditty with vintage jazz flavor. But the song that really grabs attention is ‘Are You Here’ which is a song about Rae dealing with her loss. Rae was quoted as saying that she “didn’t really want the song to into the world because it’s so naked” but felt like ‘it is something that she had to do”. Other worthy listen from ‘The Sea’ are ‘Feels Like The First Time’, ‘Closer’, ‘I Would Like To Call It Beauty’ and the title track ‘The Sea’.

‘The Sea’ is an important album about painful loss but delivered in hopeful tone and full of certainty. It’s a great album to listen to just when we need that extra nudge to move forward.

Photo from Corrine Bailey Rae official website.

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