Corinne Bailey Rae – The Heart Speaks in Whispers, review: ‘depth and generosity’

The singer from Leeds brings a blissed-out uplift on her third album that you can't resist
Hook-laden: moments on Corinne Bailey Rae's latest album stand up against Adele's 25
Richard Godwin13 May 2016

There’s a blissed-out uplift to Corinne Bailey Rae’s third album.

The Leeds soulstress sounds rhapsodic, sure of her powers – and as the guitar line on the glittering opener The Skies Will Break ascends ever upwards, you can’t resist surrendering.

When she first emerged 10 years ago, her name became a byword for coffee-shop blandness, but personal tragedy (the death of her first husband Jason Rae) lent an urgency and rawness to her second album, The Sea. She has since remarried long-time producer Steve Brown and clearly spent a lot of time in sunnier climes – but there’s a depth and a generosity that anchors these hook-laden songs.

Stop Where You Are and Do You Ever Think of Me? equal anything on Adele’s 25.

(Virgin)

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