28-04-2025
Corinne Bailey Rae review — a generally excellent orchestral remix
A lavish musical feast with a side order of critical race theory, Corinne Bailey Rae's bespoke show for the Roundhouse's Three Sixty festival served up an ambitious orchestral remix of the Leeds-born singer-songwriter's 2023 album, Black Rainbows. Inspired by multiple visits to the Stony Island Arts Bank — a hybrid gallery and museum space opened by the artist Theaster Gates in Chicago's south side in 2015 — the album is a richly imaginative rumination on African-American history and culture, as interpreted by a British musician of mixed heritage.
Black Rainbows is a fantastic piece of work, Bailey Rae's most musically and thematically adventurous album to date. Backed by about 40 members of the Guildhall Session Orchestra, composed of alumni from London's prestigious music school,
