This is a review of "The Sea" recorded by Corinne Bailey Rae. The review was written by Rosie Bryan-Adams in 2010.

She's back, after four long years, and this time, Corinne Bailey Rae presents us with an enchanting, mature album, which ebbs and flows through loss of love and memories of happiness.

'The Sea' is a clear reflection of Bailey Rae's emotional swell after the death of her husband in 2008. 'Are You Here' opens the album, and with lyrics like "When he comes around there's nothing more to imagine," Bailey Rae sets the mood for the album: it is undoubtedly sad but it is reflective and shows her determination to carry on in his memory.

We've already had a peek at Corinne Bailey Rae's new material when she performed 'I'd Do It All Again' on Jools Hollands' television show 'Later' back in November last year. The lyrics of the single outline Bailey Rae's sadness at her loss but prove that she has no regrets about her marriage. In fact, the whole album, although compiled of songs written both before and after she was widowed, is both an outflow of grief and an acceptance of what has happened. Finishing with the title track, bailey Rae's husky voice closes the album with "The majestic sea / Takes everything away / From me." Corinne Bailey Rae's 'easy-listening' music has transformed into something just as majestic, but something more established and more emotionally influenced than ever before.