Corinne Bailey Rae

When soul music is at its finest, a great vocalist can take you along on a journey into their sadness, loneliness, joy, and passion. When mixing that voice with horns, harmonies, and a bluesy Hammond organ, that same music can seamlessly travel across decades. Many new artists claim to accomplish that feat, but few are sincerely ageless and timeless: Corinne Bailey Rae has those qualities in spades. Rae--a newcomer out of Leeds, UK, with a gospel choir history--has created a self-titled CD that occasionally evokes the feeling of a '70s Bill Withers classic, while bringing inflections of Zero 7 and Alicia Keys to her grooves as well. Straight from track one, "Like a Star" displays a restrained soulfulness that shows her strengths through a whisper soft melody. Other standout cuts include the breakup-ache of "Till It Happens To You" and "Choux Pastry Heart," which discloses her jazz-affected timing and the level of powerful songwriting that she is capable of at her very best. In a day and age where a good voice alone can provide you with a golden ticket, it is refreshing to see that Rae has not only written or cowritten every song on her debut, she also contributes guitar, bass, keys, and percussion to the tracks. Her songs have some room to mature, but as a new recording artist in her mid-20s, so does she. Soul lovers, pass the word: this is one impressive debut. --Denise Sheppard

Following the frenzied media hype that's surrounded Leed's songstressCorinne Bailey Rae in recent months, she's got a lot to prove with her self-titled debut.

And there's not much to complain about here; Rae has crafted a pleasant album of romantic soul, at its most blissful when she comes over all Billie Holiday-lite on "Just Like A Star" and "Choux Pastry Heart". It also features the occasional jam ("I'd Like To"), some bluesy head-nodders ("Put Your Records On") and at the odd R&B standard ("Breathless").

All of which adds up to awell rounded, if somewhat unchallenging,album - goingsomeway to confirm the 'soulful Norah Jones' tag which many have applied to Corinne's music. --Maxine Headley

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It becomes self-evident the moment you hear her sing the very first note of her very first EP. That EP was called "Like A Star", and it showcases a slice of sublime Billie Holiday blues delivered with a voice that pins you, in the softest but most persuasive of ways, to the wall; a voice that floats up effortlessly, full of caress, subtlety and the very purest quality. It is wonderful, this voice, and surely a discovery to treasure, but it belongs to a young woman not from somewhere musically exotic--say, Mississippi or even Manhattan--but just east of the M1: Leeds. Her name is Corinne Bailey Rae, and she was born to do this.

CORINNE BAILEY RAE Corinne Bailey Rae (2006 Taiwanese 11-track CD album showcasing a slice of sublime Billie Holiday blues delivered with a voice that pins you in the softest but most persuasive of ways to the wall; a voice that floats up effortlessly full of caress subtlety and the very purest quality including the singles Like A Star & Put Your Records On presented in a unique card slipcase with Taiwanese text - sealed)