January 2010 Archives

Corinne Bailey Rae's new single, "I'd Do It All Again," has been up on Rhapsody for a few weeks now, and it's a real keeper.

The song starts out quiet and acoustic but slowly builds in intensity, with flashes of swirling psychedelic soul.  The lyrics seem to address her confusion and mixed emotions surrounding her late husband's very avoidable demise.

Rae's 2006 debut was a critical and commercial success, and shifted a couple million units in America (which is rare for an artist who sings with a noticeable English accent). Such elders as Al Green -- whose laid-back, slowly building style is an obvious influence -- and Herbie Hancock were impressed and immediately recorded with her.

Her new CD, The Sea, is more sonically varied than her debut was, but it still shines with her patented mix of neo-soul and traditional singer-songwriter pop (which can position her closer to acoustic-guitar-toting males like Bill Withers, Amos Lee and Ben Harper than to flashier talents such as Alicia Keys or Leona Lewis). It was Led Zep that originally inspired CBR to pick up the guitar, and she's covered them, John Lennon, Joni Mitchell and Marvin Gaye.

Before digging into The Sea, take this Rhapsody tour of Rae's earlier recordings. She's done a number of interesting collaborations, cover versions and guest appearances in a very short period of time.
 

Though it's hard (well, hard for grown-ups, anyway) to think of them as separate entities, the Jonas Brothers were once just the siblings of Nick Jonas, whose burgeoning solo career turned into the family trio we all know and love. Thus, the "talented one" taking off on his own with new side project Nick Jonas and the Administration seems inevitable, if somewhat heartbreaking to tweens the world over. His rock-band move on the new Who I Am is also part of a longstanding tradition of seemingly frivolous pop stars suddenly presenting themselves in a more serious light. Herewith, a history of some who've trod this oft-dangerous path before -- both successfully, and not so much.

The Monkees, Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd. (1967) and Head (1968): The Prefab Four take control of their destiny and explore your psychedelic mind. Hey hey they're the Monkees, and people say they're Moogin' around.

The Osmonds, "Crazy Horses" and "Hold Her Tight" (1972): Donny and his brothers invent Mormon metal, inspiring bands from Aerosmith to KMFDM for years to come. You want Big Love? Well, this is as big as it got.

Bob Geldof, "This Is the World Calling" (1986): From singing about Hitler's girlfriend in partially pajama-clad New Wave goof-punk band the Boomtown Rats to a Nobel Peace Prize nomination in three easy steps. You think it's easy? Try it sometime.

George Michael, Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 (1990): Okay, so he'd already put waking-you-up-before-you-go-go Wham!dom long behind him, and 1987's Faith earned him some well-deserved respect. But here's where he started to get really pretentious.

Poison and Cinderella and Warrant, various vaguely grungey albums (early '90s): Those mascara days were different times, and now hair-metal bands were ready to dress like real men, play the blues and move far fewer units than back when they actually used to have fun. Then they lost their hair. And went country.

Alanis Morrissette, Jagged Little Pill (1995): Ha ha, you keep forgetting she made those two teenage Canadian dance-pop albums before she started wailing about performing questionable acts in theaters, right? Well, we remember. Even though we're still pretty sure Canadians can't dance.

Vanilla Ice, Hard to Swallow (1998): Yup yup -- stupid people never appreciated the awesome artistry of "Ice Ice Baby," so what do you do, Robbie Van Winkle? Turn into the next Fred Durst, that's what! People will take you seriously for sure now!

Justin Timberlake, Justified (2002): 'NSYNC had Justin like the Jackson 5 had Michael, so it only made sense when the curly-headed cutie went solo. More than just a means of capitalizing on his boy-band fame, J.T. used his solo career (and Timbaland's help) to take off in bolder, more mature directions, and inch ever closer to M.J.'s brand of pop royalty.

Gwen Stefani, Love. Angel. Music. Baby. (2004): To many, Gwen's breakaway from No Doubt simply completed the picture of the band sketched in "Don't Speak": hot female lead singer hogs spotlight. But her solo career has also served to justify that attention, which she gets because she's captivating performing anything from mall-punk ska to show-tune hip-hop.

Jonas, Timberlake and Stefani writeups by Rachel Devitt.