Corinne Bailey Rae - Chains

On the mainly Hip-Hop based soundtrack for RZA's forthcoming directoral debut 'The Man With The Iron Firsts', features this new piece of music from British R&B star Corinne Bailey Rae. The soundtrack includes music from a wide variety of artists such as KanYe West, Wu-Tang Clan, The Black Keys, Pusha T and many more, with production being handled by RZA, Frank Dukes, KanYe West, Boogz & Tapez. The film stars Russell Crowe and will in cinemas (in the US) from November 2nd.

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Corinne Bailey Rae - I Would Like To Call It Beauty (Freddie Joachim Reprise)

Freddie Joachim samples one of my favourite tracks from Corrine Bailey Rae's 2010 release 'The Sea', to create a stunning Jazz-infused Hip-Hop reprise that you could just stick on repeat for hours and hours. Corrine sounds even more angelic than usual on this. Download for free HERE.

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J. Cole - Like A Star

Mr. Cole took to the Internet last night and dropped a 5 track FreEP of unreleased music. Sampling the classic Corinne Bailey Rae track, Cole explains that he was trying saving this track for the second album, but due to a few external problems he decided that he was going to let it go now. If anyone questions this man's work ethic and the amount of talent that he possesses, then you don't deserve to listen to music, full stop. Check out Cole's words on the EP over @RWD and get your download HERE.

Is This Love?

Earlier in the week Corinne’s cover of Prince’s classic ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’ leaked onto the web. Well, now I can bring you her beautiful take on one of my favourite ever Bob Marley songs; they will both be available on The Love EP, which is dropping on Valentine’s Day. Hit the jump to hear Corinne breaking down the EP track-by-track. I love this lady.

R.I.P. Bob.

‘I Wanna Be Your Lover’
I met Prince in London at his gigs at the O2 and he gave me loads of encouragement. I was amazed by the gig but even more impressed by the aftershow he did in a small venue where he tore up on the guitar and played other people’s songs too. This is one of my favourite Prince songs and gives me the chance to sing the kind of sexy, rhythmical music I love but never seem to write. Getting the chance to do this song was a dream.

‘Low Red Moon’
Belly were one of the prime influences on my first band Helen, where we had a real indie/DIY ethic. I was addicted to their album ‘Star’ as a teenager and learnt loads about guitar playing just listening to them. They made me realise the most important thing in music was to express yourself and get your ideas across, without worrying about playing like a virtuoso. We had such fun playing this song, it’s like an aggressive 60′s science-fiction soundtrack.

‘Is This Love?’
My mum was the Bob Marley fan in our house which I loved, because although my father is Caribbean, he didn’t much care for reggae. Little examples like this meant I grew up learning that you could be yourself and never had to be a cliché because of your ethnicity. And Bob Marley is such an incredible songwriter, which means you can approach his songs in so many ways. I wanted to put ‘Is This Love?’ into 6/8 and bring the tempo back to underline the poignancy of the lyric, and then Steve Brown arranged the piano part into something reminiscent of Carole King or Aretha Franklin’s gospel-soul piano style, which gave it a whole extra level. When guitarist John McCallum added in this Hendrix/Curtis Mayfield sound, it brought in a whole American doo-wop dimension too. So it’s like a whole bunch of my favourite influences in one beautiful song.

‘My Love’
I first heard ‘My Love’ at an event for Paul McCartney at the White House, where I was invited to play. A string section played the song and I was struck by the fragility of that ascending melody on “My love does it good”. I was also really touched by Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney’s relationship; their mutual respect and the fact they had known each other so long. When we recorded this song the harmonies and keyboards were definitely influenced by Stevie’s sound.

‘Que Sera Sera’ (live)
‘Que Sera Sera’ is a song we have been closing our gigs with all over the world. I love Sly and the Family Stone’s version, how he takes what feels like a nursery rhyme in Doris Day’s lovely hands and turns it into a philosophical outcry, declaiming “The future’s not ours to see”. Sometimes I attack this lyric angrily, sometimes I’m all peaceful and surrendered to it. What an amazing song. We recorded this super-long version in Washington D.C one night when the magic in the air meant we didn’t want to get off stage. I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we enjoyed playing it.

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I Wanna Be Your Lover

Corinne Bailey Rae is doing a covers project, and here is the first track to come from it; a spectacular take on a classic by Prince. An exceptionally talented and beautiful lady.

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File Sharing

I feel it’s time for me to write about an issue that seems to be all over the News again and something that affects me and millions of other people on a Daily basis. File Sharing, Illegal Downloading, Stealing or whatever else you want to call it, is a problem that has been around for 10 or so years now. We all know what it is, how it works and that it’s wrong; however it’s a force that in the past few years has now become unstoppable.

From a personal perspective I cannot see the problem with ME ‘illegally’ downloading certain files. Out of all the people I have ever met in my life, I am still yet to come across someone that loves Music more than me, which is why I think I can make a valid point on this issue. From the start of 2010 I have acquired 784 songs and we are not even out of March yet - crazy right? Well………not really.

As a Student I have a lot of spare time on my hands and a very unhealthy bank balance, so I need to carefully choose what Music I buy and support. Throughout the past 3 months I have bought a lot of Music: Emancipator - Safe In The Steep Cliffs, Example - Won’t Go Quietly, Ty - Emotions, Gorillaz - Plastic Beach, Corinne Bailey Rae - The Sea, Strong Arm Steady - In Search Of Stoney Jackson, Wiley - Never Be Your Woman and M-Trey & Drew Beat - Immaculate Dopeness (Unsigned Hip-Hop duo from Chicago) & More. My point is; I illegally downloaded each of those Singles/Albums before I bought them, just so I knew that my money was going to a project I thoroughly enjoyed. After spending this £40-£50 within 3 months, there is a lot of other Music out there, which I can’t afford to buy; but does that really mean I don’t have the right to listen to it? I don’t think so. I have listened to their work and made an educated choice on where the money I have earned should go.

Today I downloaded Dan Le Sac & Scroobius Pip’s new album ‘Logic of Choice’, which is an album I have been anticipating greatly since hearing Angles in 2008. My Bank Balance currently stands at -£1,397.39, which means I have £1.03 available and am unable to buy anything; so I shall be purchasing the album on Friday when I get paid. I am also going to see them at Cockpit in Leeds on Thursday to support them as I feel they are a revolutionary pair that have created a whole new genre of Music. Now can anyone say there is anything wrong with that? I doubt it.

I can understand that there are people illegally downloading their whole libraries and not putting ANY money back into the Music Industry, but that’s not everyone is it. A lot of people download Music to increase their knowledge and widen their perspective when it comes to certain genre’s and I personally don’t think there is anything wrong with that. I would never usually buy an Indie/Rock album, and neither would I expect an Indie fan to buy a Hip-Hop album out of the blue, so if it wasn’t for illegal downloading then I would have never listened to the Temper Trap album in 2009, which I bought and it ended up becoming one of my favourite albums of the year (same with Miike Snow).

It’s a never ending argument, but it is something that is never going to be stopped unfortunately.

SUPPORT GOOD MUSIC!

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