Corinne Bailey Rae's Magical Thinking

Corinne Bailey Rae's first, self-titled album was a breezy affair, a collection of open and friendly neo-soul songs that worked well enough to earn her a wide-ranging following and to go double platinum in the U.S. But that was in 2006, and for her, that's a lifetime ago.

In 2008, Rae's husband, musician Jason Rae, died, and it's in that aftermath that she has just released The Sea, a meditation on grief, pain and living amidst the ghosts of memory. It's also a joyous affair, but it's a joy very much tempered with the edge of death, which simultaneously makes it subdued and truly beautiful. It's a magnificent album, one that pays off with repeat listens, as its subtleties open and give themselves over to the terrible and miraculous wonder that is living.

The Sea has a harder sound than Rae's debut. Rae's vocals are a bit buried in the mix; the guitars have an occasional growl and the bass sometimes throbs with a malevolent intent. It is less a sound of foreboding than it is about the sound of pain realized. Yet there's no ploy for anyone's sympathy. On the album's first single, "I'd Do It All Again," she sings like a late-period Marvin Gaye, defiantly revealing her hurt and vulnerability while declaring that despite her pain, she wouldn't change a damn thing:

"Someone to love is bigger than your pride's worth
It's bigger than the pain you got, for all it hurts
It outruns all the sadness
It's terrifying light to the darkness
And I'd do it all again"

Even better is "The Blackest Lily," easily the toughest and sexiest Rae song has ever recorded. You can feel the lingering memory of lust pervade every nuance of Rae's vocal, where that lust transformed into love - and where finally, she lost it. This is adult music, and it's music that's vaguely uncomfortable, like watching someone strip in front of your eyes, simply to show you who they really are.

It seems a cliche that great soul music comes from something more than a passing acquaintance with pain, but cliches are cliches for a reason - they're usually true. The Sea, Corinne Bailey Rae has made her version of a truly soulful album, one that does what the best of soul has always done - unflinchingly acknowledging life's most devastating blows, while also experiencing their terrible and magical ecstasy.

The Sea - Corinne Bailey Rae

Thoughts On the Four Tops and Levi Stubbs

For me, the time to listen to the Four Tops was always at night, alone and in the dark. Their sound, possibly more than any Motown act, was the sound of yearning and longing, sometimes with a happy ending, sometimes not. But it was also the sound of companionship and friendship – hearing Levi Stubbs’s voice was the sound of knowing that while you may have been experiencing loneliness, you’re weren't alone in feeling it. That’s something.

When I heard that Levi Stubbs died last week, the first word that I thought of about him and the Tops was “dependable.” That may seem like faint praise, but it’s not - far from it. They music always occurred for me as a stalwart friend, and if they lacked the flash of Marvin Gaye, the Temptations and a couple of others, their greatest songs, “(Reach Out) I’ll Be There,” “Ask The Lonely,” “Shake Me, Wake Me (When It’s Over)” and “Baby I Need Your Loving,” are testaments to the to eternal power of warmth, openheartedness, friendship and love. To have survived with their original members intact for over 40 years, they had to do more than just sing about those values. They had to do something far more challenging – they had to actually be them. And they were.

Levi’s voice and the Four Tops songs are so ingrained in our cultural DNA that for some, they may sound cliché. But the next time you’re home, late at night by yourself, put “Baby I Need Your Loving,” on, real loud. Get present to the beauty of it – the arrangement, the rhythm, the strings and the backing “ooohs.” But most of all, listen to Levi Stubbs. Hear the longing, the intensity, the vulnerability and strength side by side of one other. When you do, you’ll get that Levi Stubbs’s was one of the greatest singers we’ve ever been lucky to have.

Norman Whitfield: 1940-2008

"I Heard It Through The Grapevine." "Aint Too Proud To Beg." "I Wish It Would Rain." "Papa Was A Rolling Stone." "Beauty Is Only Skin Deep." "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)."

Those are just a handful of songs written by the great Norman Whitfield, who died today at the age of 68. Whitfield was a Motown songwriter, producer and arranger, and after Holland-Dozier-Holland left Motown in 1967, he became one of the first tier songwriters in the Motown stable. His greatest collaborations were with the Temptations, for whom he took over songwriting and production duties in 1966. And starting with the Tempts, "Cloud Nine," in 1968, Whitfield dragged Motown into the psychedelic era, paving the way for the later triumphs of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On.

One of the greatest songwriters in any generation.