Corinne Bailey Rae
The Love EP
Capitol Records
6.5/10
While I’m not usually a fan of cover songs (let alone cover albums…painful), Corinne Bailey Rae’s The Love EP isn’t too bad. The singer-songwriter takes a stab at putting her own twist on some famous love songs from the past.
The EP opened rather weak with “I Wanna Be Your Lover” originally recorded by Prince. A synth took over a lot of the instruments of the original, which made the song more cheesy and not really much of a cover at all, as it sounded very similar to Prince’s version.
“Que Sera Sera” wasn’t much of a change either and an extended version at thirteen minutes, but this was a live version which turned into a jam session of the song at the end. This made for a very soulful and emotional build up to a great ending for the both the song and the album.
My favorite track is definitely “Is This Love?” originally by Bob Marley. Bailey Rae takes this song to a love making R&B level that is reminded of Alicia Keys. Very original of an original, if that makes sense. Just listen to it, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Other than “Is This Love?” Bailey Rae seems to play it safe with every other track. She stays close to home by changing some of the instrumentation but keeping the basic structure of each song, and when you look at the track list, who can blame her?
-Kelia Iha