Corinne Bailey Rae
Black Rainbows
Black Rainbows/Thirty Tigers
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The Stony Island Arts Bank on the South Side of Chicago is a space assigned for archiving aspects of Black cultural life and curating and displaying Black art. Its contents include the personal vinyl collection of legendary DJ and house music innovator Frankie Knuckles, an extensive collection of Ebony and Jet magazines, and the Edward J Williams Collection of items of “negrobilia” that make use of harmful stereotypical images of Black people. This repository for Black life celebrates Black excellence and innovation and offers reminders of the oppressive weight of anti-Black culture.
Corinne Bailey Rae has been very vocal in the run-up to Black Rainbows being released about the profound and revelatory impact of the place on her fourth studio album and from the first moments of the album, it is clear that there has been a seismic shift in her artistry. Black Rainbows is a cosmic leap away from her previous three albums, containing moments of free jazz, excoriating rock and electronic textures, all fitting together coherently while maintaining the fragile, beautiful melodies she specializes in.
Bailey Rae’s first musical endeavor was in an all-female rock group called Helen, who were influenced by the likes of Veruca Salt. She has also worked with Herbie Hancock and her live cover of “Que Sera Sera” in the same style as Sly Stone is reassuringly heavy, but you’d have to be a clairvoyant to have seen this shift coming.
Every emotion you might imagine arising in the chest in such a rich artistic space as The Stony Island Arts Bank is given breath here by Bailey Rae. And it starts with the forging of a connection to those encapsulated in the Arts Bank on opener “A Spell, A Prayer.” A dynamic, shape-shifting dynamic mix of loud and soft, with floating We Are KING-ly choirs, fuzzed-up guitars and a huge, stadium size chorus, it celebrates the lineage and legacy of those who have gone before her and forges a connection to the past.
There is disgust and anger at the treatment of Black people on the visceral guitar thrill of “Erasure,” where she sings, ‘They Tipp-Ex’d all the Black kids / Out of the picture . . . Baby girl in the front row / With the cornrows / Smiling at the band / They made a cartoon of you.” There is and in a newfound heroine on “New York Transit Queen,” which crunches and blisters as satisfyingly as “Erasure.”
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There’s more than a modicum of hope sprinkled throughout too. It’s there on the squawking jazz fusion of “Black Rainbows,” it’s there in the squirly lines and Eddie Hazel-like guitar of “Earthlings” when she sings, “It’s up to us” and it is most definitely there on the bewitching “Peach Velvet Sky,” where her voice rises and falls with the grace of a swallow on the wing.
The highlight for me (though difficult to pick) is the sharply contrasting “He Will Follow You With His Eyes.” It starts as a gently lilting little sway with Bailey Rae channeling her inner 1950s siren of the silver screen. She sings of how to “snag” a man with feminine wiles, cold cream and “longer and straighter” hair. It is subtly beguiling with swooning backing vocals courtesy of We are KING, but then there is an abrupt switch after 2 minutes and 19 seconds signaled by a sonic boom of sorts. That boom is the sound of a countless Black women realizing Western beauty standards exclude them and she then goes on to assert her own beauty by repeating the refrain, “My plum red lipstick / My black hair kinking / My black skin gleaming’ as a mantra, accompanied by a thunderous bass, that rejects racist beauty standards and redefines them for Black women. All in just shy of four minutes.
Arguably the thing that strikes most of all is the intent that bristles throughout. Every note, every silent moment serves a purpose in the grand scheme of things. The first few seconds of “A Spell, A Prayer” (for example) are silent, reflecting the hushed reverence (or abject horror, in some cases) when you enter exhibition spaces like Stony Island Arts Bank. Black Rainbows is full of such details, signifying a work filled with crystal clear purposes and meanings.
Notable Tracks: “A Spell, A Prayer” | “Erasure” | “He Will Follow You With His Eyes” | “Put It Down”
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