Corrina Bailey Rae
The Sea
Blue Note Records
www.bluenote.com
By George W. Harris

Blue Note Records continues to delve into the indie/quirky/girlish
vocalist genre by bringing British vocalist /guitarist/composer Corrina
Bailey Rae into the fold. This release, her third, is sort of in the
Nora Jones genre, but with a tad more eccentricity and an extra layer
of neo soul.

Remember the old game we used to play, where you would measure
something with your hands, and then pass that distance on to someone
next to you, etc, for about 10 people, to see how far the last person’s
hands were from the original? Well, this is how this disc feels-sort of
a half glance measure at the Nora Jones feel, yet Rae actually has
trouble singing in key a couple of times, and the tunes sound more like
ideas and subliminal thoughts than actual compositions. “Closer” comes
closest to a winner here, with the rest leaving me scratching my head.