So don't you stand there wishing your life would fade away

Continuing my trip back through the 2010 album charts.

07/02/10 : The Sea - Corinne Bailey Rae

The ladies are on a roll here - they've had seven of the last eight entries, which has got to be one of the best runs we've ever seen.  This is our second visit with Corinne - last time was the one that everyone knows and loves, but I'm not sure I've ever even heard of this one which isn't exactly a great sign...

Hmmm - it's OK, but I struggle to imagine it would have gone anywhere without the love generated by her eponymous debut.  This one has a rawer, jazzier sound - in a lot of ways it's a more interesting album, but that doesn't make it more enjoyable.  I can't recall one track jumping out at me - it feels like it would take several listens to dial into it enough to see if there are nuances worth investigating (which I suspect there are), but I'm afraid that ain't gonna happen.

We're at #5 on the charts this week with a new entry starting an eight week run - similarly to Sade from last week, I suspect there were quite a few disappointed listeners.  The rest of the top five were Alicia, Andre Rieu, Paolo and Florence and we have two more new entries in the top ten with Kesha (#8 - I forget she's been around that long) and Peter Andre (#9 - unfortunately, I don't forget that he has).  I'm also giving the next new entry, Hot Chip's One Life Stand (#11) a name check because it's a fine album and imho their high point.

Wikipedia tells me it's no surprise this album was rawer than the previous one because she recorded it after a hiatus caused by the death of her husband, so I can quite understand she wasn't in the mood to smooth things over for us.  Some songs were written beforehand and some written afterwards and it also tells us she'd been listening to Sly & The Family Stone and Curtis Mayfield albums from the 70s, and I can feel them coming through.  The critics generally liked it - they like people to "grow", particularly if pain is involved and it featured on quite a few best of '10 lists (which is always impressive for albums released early in the year).  Commercially it did better than I was expecting (#7 in the US) but again the suspicion is that she was trading on love generated from her debut - but given the circumstances, I think it really doesn't matter.  She's only released one other album which came out in '13, which was the year she got remarried, so I might try to listen to that at some point to see how it sounds.

"Customers also listened to" Lianne Le Havas, Joss Stone, Macy Gray and Nikka Costa - Macy feels like a good match for this album.  It didn't really click for me on first listen, but given the circumstances that doesn't really feel like it matters - as far as I'm concerned she was allowed to do whatever she felt she needed to.  And I'm sure my opinion doesn't matter to her in the slightest!

31/01/10 - One that hit the sweet spot
14/02/10 - Smooth, but doesn't hit the spot

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