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Best Music Of 2023

The 50 Best Albums of 2023

December 5, 2023 • The album's not dead! Want proof? NPR Music's list of the best albums of 2023 features masterworks by veterans, newcomers, iconoclasts and at least one supergroup.

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Amplify With Lara Downes

How Corinne Bailey Rae and Theaster Gates are preserving Black culture

Classical California KUSC

October 17, 2023 • On her album, Black Rainbows, Bailey Rae was inspired by the art, books and magazines at the Stony Island Arts Bank, a repository for Black history on Chicago's South Side, created by Gates.

New Music Friday: The best releases out on Sept. 15

Mitski's The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We is on our shortlist of the best albums out on Sept. 15. Ebru Yildiz/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Ebru Yildiz/Courtesy of the artist

All Songs Considered

New Music Friday: The best releases out on Sept. 15

September 15, 2023 • NPR Music's picks for the best albums out this week include Corinne Bailey Rae's Black Rainbows, Mitski's The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We, a stunning debut from Ralphie Choo and more.

New Music Friday: The best releases out on Sept. 15

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The 200 Greatest Songs By 21st Century Women+ (100-81)

Jenny Lewis performs at Piedmont Park during Music Midtown in Atlanta, Ga. in Sept. 2015. Scott Legato/FilmMagic/Getty Images hide caption

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The 200 Greatest Songs By 21st Century Women+

The 200 Greatest Songs By 21st Century Women+ (100-81)

July 30, 2018 • This list tackles history in the making, celebrating women and non-binary musicians whose songs are redefining genres and attitudes and changing our sense of what popular music can be in this century.

First Watch: Corinne Bailey Rae, 'Hey, I Won't Break Your Heart'

Corinne Bailey Rae in her video for "Hey, I Won't Break Your Heart." Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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All Songs TV

First Watch: Corinne Bailey Rae, 'Hey, I Won't Break Your Heart'

October 19, 2016 • In her new circus-themed video for a song about rebuilding trust, Rae gazes directly into the camera, challenging our protective masks just as she lets her own guard fall.

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Tiny Desk

Corinne Bailey Rae: Tiny Desk Concert

September 19, 2016 • There's real joy in this genre-defying performance by the English singer-songwriter, who performs material from her first album in six years.

Watch Corinne Bailey Rae And Mary Chapin Carpenter Play World Cafe Live

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World Cafe

Watch Corinne Bailey Rae And Mary Chapin Carpenter Play World Cafe Live

WXPN

May 20, 2016 • The British singer-songwriter and the country-folk veteran perform live in Philadelphia starting at noon EDT.

On Corinne Bailey Rae's New Album, A Focus On Renewal

Corinne Bailey Rae's new album, The Heart Speaks in Whispers, focuses on hope and transformation. Alexandra Valenti/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Music Interviews

On Corinne Bailey Rae's New Album, A Focus On Renewal

May 18, 2016 • Between her first and second albums, the British singer's world was shattered by loss. Rae says her latest, The Heart Speaks in Whispers, is all about transformation and hope.

On Corinne Bailey Rae's New Album, A Focus On Renewal

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Review: Corinne Bailey Rae, 'The Heart Speaks In Whispers'

Corinne Bailey Rae's new album, The Heart Speaks In Whispers, comes out May 13. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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First Listen

Review: Corinne Bailey Rae, 'The Heart Speaks In Whispers'

May 5, 2016 • On Rae's third album, the singer-songwriter's fleshed-out jams and delicate, jazz-informed ballads examine the subtle trajectories emotions can take.

Corinne Bailey Rae: Sharpening The Edges

In "The Blackest Lily," Corinne Bailey Rae sheds the easygoing placidity of her early work. courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Review

Song Of The Day

Corinne Bailey Rae: Sharpening The Edges

March 31, 2010 • Where the singer's voice was once a heavy-lidded murmur, in "The Blackest Lily" it comes off as languid and sensual, giving a frisky undercurrent to the admission, "I was a creature of appetites."

'The Blackest Lily' by Corinne Bailey Rae

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Corinne Bailey Rae Mesmerizes With 'The Sea'

Tierney Gearon

Review

Music Reviews

Corinne Bailey Rae Mesmerizes With 'The Sea'

January 26, 2010 • The British singer-songwriter made a splash in 2006 with her chart-topping single "Put Your Records On." Now, two years after the death of her husband, Rae returns with The Sea, and it's light-years ahead of what she'd done before. The album marks the arrival of a newly observant songwriter and an absolutely fearless singer.

Corinne Bailey Rae Mesmerizes With 'The Sea'

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Corinne Bailey Rae: Finding Solace In 'The Sea'

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World Cafe

Corinne Bailey Rae: Finding Solace In 'The Sea'

WXPN

January 21, 2010 • Rae follows her hugely successful debut with The Sea, an intimate and emotional album that reflects on the 2008 death of her husband. In this session for WXPN, the soulful pop singer performs four songs from her new album.

Corinne Bailey Rae: Finding Solace In 'The Sea'

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First Listen

First Listen: Corinne Bailey Rae, 'The Sea'

WFUV

January 17, 2010 • Four years ago, the glamorous neo-soul singer broke through from the U.K. to the U.S. charts with "Put Your Records On," and suddenly she was everywhere. In the time since, she's lost her husband and mourned for two years. Rae is about to release a new album called The Sea — available for streaming in its entirety here until its release on Jan. 26.

Listen To Corinne Bailey Rae's 'The Sea'

World Cafe

Corinne Bailey Rae: Jazz, Pop and Soul

WXPN

October 2, 2006 • Corinne Bailey Rae's musical influences range from choral church music and classical jazz to Veruca Salt and Led Zeppelin. With such a wide variety of inspirations, it's no surprise that her own music offers a unique perspective on modern music, as her crisp, clean vocals blend with a soulful backdrop of pianos, guitars and harmonies.

Review

Song Of The Day

Jazz and Pop Get Languid and Wistful

September 27, 2006 • But "Like A Star" is a real find: Languid and wistful, mild in a weirdly appealing way, it's a worshipful ode to a quarrelsome lover that's meandering, tentative and hook-free. It shouldn't sound nearly as good as it does, but Rae sells the song as if her life depended on it, uncovering new layers of longing and lust that probably weren't on the page to begin with. As a songwriter, Rae isn't fully developed, but as a rehabilitator of creaky jazz ballads, she's already first-rate.

'Like a Star' by Corinne Bailey Rae

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