CORINNE BAILEY RAE - THE SEA - TIE FOR #11

I can say that Corinne Bailey Rae's The Sea is the album on my list of favorites of 2010 that I will probably listen to the least. It's not because it's bad, it's because it's devastatingly beautiful. I talked about this album a while back, the album was inspired by the accidental OD-related death of Rae's husband. It's an unimaginable tragedy.  But she's a songwriter, and I guess that's what songwriters do.

I know that the song "I Would Like To Call It Beauty" was inspired by a phone conversation with her husband's brother, I imagine the song represents a positive way of dealing with a pain that I (thankfully) can't identify with. But the song that I love the most is "I'd Do It All Again." I mean, the title kind of says it all, what a sentiment.

I had the real privilege to film Ms. Rae with her band when they came to the SiriusXM studios in 2010. I was a fan, but it was hard to be in the room with her as she sang those devastating songs. Here's one of the more upbeat ones, it's called "The Blackest Lily." It struck me that she must have had to answer the same questions about such a difficult thing over and over (such is the way the album promotional cycle goes, you do many similar interviews and end up answering the same questions a number of times).  And despite this, she seemed to just have a great attitude, a great vibe. The Sea is a surprisingly optimistic album, I just hope her next one finds a bit more joy.