Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea (Good Groove/Virgin) *** (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea (Good Groove/Virgin) ***

11:00am Saturday 13th February 2010 in

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FROM the inoffensive tinker of Put Your Records On, Ms Bailey Rae seemed to have carved herself a lucrative niche soundtracking dinner parties for M&S shoppers.

She started work on a second album in 2007, but after the loss of her husband the following year it took her another year to get back to work.

Perhaps in that time she found the space to deal properly with some emotions, or work out how much she felt she could share, because what could have been shrouded in pain and loss in fact turns out to be generally uplifting and stoic – not a million miles from the sound that made her name.

Easy to listen to but difficult to grasp, The Sea is a true surprise – emotional, distressing, passionate and optimistic.