thu 12/12/2024

Corinne Bailey Rae, Somerset House | reviews, news & interviews

Corinne Bailey Rae, Somerset House

Corinne Bailey Rae, Somerset House

A star is reinvented in one of the surprise best gigs of the summer.

Corinne Bailey Rae: from breezy summer hits to autumnal intensity

Was this a Corinne Bailey Rae audience or a Somerset House audience? “We’re Somerset House fans,” I heard one posh punter proudly tell some friends. Then later I heard a woman talking about the Florence and the Machine gig that she’d missed earlier in this short season of concerts, as if it were a stamp missing from her collection. Could this really be an audience who were here for the building first and the music second? Yes, this enclosed yet open-air square in central London is a delightful space, but when did ambience become more important than music? And anyway, there’s no space on Earth that could make Florence and the Machine sound good to me. But Corinne Bailey Rae, now that’s a different matter.

Was this a Corinne Bailey Rae audience or a Somerset House audience? “We’re Somerset House fans,” I heard one posh punter proudly tell some friends. Then later I heard a woman talking about the Florence and the Machine gig that she’d missed earlier in this short season of concerts, as if it were a stamp missing from her collection. Could this really be an audience who were here for the building first and the music second? Yes, this enclosed yet open-air square in central London is a delightful space, but when did ambience become more important than music? And anyway, there’s no space on Earth that could make Florence and the Machine sound good to me. But Corinne Bailey Rae, now that’s a different matter.

Sometimes a line of lyric finds its perfect melodic expression, and so it is here

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Comments

Superb review, Howard - you took me right back to those front cobblestones, Friday night. Thank you

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