Black Rainbows

1979年生まれ、イギリス/リーズ出身。インディーズバンド、Helenのメンバーとして音楽活動をスタートする。同バンド解散後はソロとして活動を開始し、2006年にリリースしたデビューアルバム『Corinne Bailey Rae』がなんと全英1位、全米4位を獲得、更に2007年グラミー賞でレコード・オブ・ザ・イヤー、ソング・オブ・ザ・イヤーにノミネートされるという成功を収める。一躍大スターに躍り出たコリーヌだが、2008年に最愛の夫を亡くし一年間は活動休止状態となってしまう。しかし深い悲しみの中でも音楽への愛は消えず、2010年2ndアルバムでカムバック。2012年にはグラミー賞でベスト・R&B・パフォーマンス部門を見事受賞。
そして2023年、シカゴにあるStoney Island Arts Bankにて展示・収集されているブラックアートから強いインスピレーションを受け、最新アルバム『Black Rainbows』をリリース。コリーヌらしく、プログレッシブ・R&B、ネオ・ソウルなど様々なジャンルが詰め込まれた期待の一枚。

Her curiosity piqued by a photo of Theaster Gates taken in his workspace, Corinne Bailey Rae met the artist and activist the next time she played Chicago, where he welcomed her to the Stony Island Arts Bank, a gallery, archive, library, and community center. Bailey Rae felt profoundly affected inside the South Side monument to Black culture, and returned for an artist residency at the invitation of founder Gates. She wrote songs informed by her surroundings and experience -- everything from works of art to pages of Ebony and Jet to a dance party soundtracked by the preserved record collection of house pioneer Frankie Knuckles. Approaching the material as a side project had a liberating effect that allowed her to create without thinking about how the results would be received. Although Black Rainbows is a uniquely conceptual work and sticks all the way out from Corinne Bailey Rae, The Sea, and The Heart Speaks in Whispers, its at least as personal as any of the singers first three albums. Contrary to her reputation for making pillowy adult contemporary R&B, Bailey Rae started in a punk band that was hard enough to be courted by Roadrunner Records. Black Rainbows taps into that spirit more than once. "New York Transit Queen" is a thrashing celebration inspired by a mid-50s image of future fashion legend Audrey Smaltz. "Erasure," seething and thunderous, was written in response to examining graphically anti-Black postcards. On these songs, Bailey Raes buzzing guitar is as much a lead as her full-tilt vocals. Other moments -- the bristly, knocking, and wailing "Black Rainbows," the unfurling incantation "Before the Throne of the Invisible God" -- sound unselfconsciously sculpted, teeming with unbound imagination. The solitary piano ballad, "Peach Velvet Sky," is also a progression; written from the confined and anguished perspective of abolitionist and author Harriet Jacobs, it features Baileys most powerful lyrics and vocal performance. The house diversions are suitably carefree, delightfully weird, and just as meaningful. A futuristic paradise is imagined in "Earthlings" through a slow, off-center groove slathered in guitar and concluded by birdsong. In the eight-minute "Put It Down," Bailey Rae achieves hard-fought release, distressed over turbulent strings and synthesizers, then seemingly indestructible as her voice slides atop a stout four-four rhythm. "I put it down -- I feel so free" could be the albums subtitle. ~ Andy Kellman

UKのソングストレスが7年ぶりに放つ4作目のアルバムは、シカゴのサウスサイドにある黒人文化遺産の所蔵館に刺激を受け、アートやルーツを探究。彼女らしいオーガニックなバラードもあるが、"New York Transit Queen"のような激しいパンク・ロックをはじめ、前衛ジャズやプログレッシヴなハウスなどが並び、多彩なギャラリーを巡るかのよう。大胆で壮大な意欲作だ。
bounce (C)林剛