Corinne Bailey Rae: Put this record on

These days it is almost commonplace for British female singers to make it big with their first album. But Corinne Bailey Rae's self-titled debut, released in 2006, had something that Duffy and Adele and Leona and Alexandra and Pixie didn't have.

Songs such as Put Your Records On and Like A Star were both light and wise, real and ethereal, and she co-wrote them. Born and bred in Leeds and equipped with an English degree, Bailey Rae had her head in a good book and her feet on the ground.

Everything went right with that album. It sold four million copies, won many awards, and found its way into people's hearts as well as their homes. But then, as she began writing songs for the follow-up, came a shocking development: in March 2008 her husband Jason Rae, a jazz saxophonist, was found dead in a friend's flat after a night out.

For about a year, she couldn't write songs; then they flowed out of her, and she finished The Sea in six months. The first line she sings is: "He's a real live wire." It's a powerful statement, expressing love and loss, innocence and bitter irony, and all in a few syllables.

It would be unfair to expect this album to maintain the unbeatable lightness of its predecessor, and the floaty pop-soul has given way to a heavier sound, more rock than pop.

That first song, Are You Here, is one of several built on insistent guitar riffs; The Blackest Lily is driven by a heavy bass and a rock guitar solo; even Feels Like The First Time, a honeyed soul song that comes close to the first album, has dark chords under the chorus.

If the first album had a weakness, it was that it played a little safe, and this one does too. Bailey Rae has changed her style, but stayed conservative. The insistent riffs get repetitive and stop some of the songs taking flight.

On four or five tracks, though, the emotions, and the melodies, are strong enough to rise above the stylings. I'd Do It All Again was written when Jason was still alive, after a tiff, but it comes across as a reflection on his death, and Corinne sings it with passion.

Returning gorgeousness

Love's On Its Way is an intriguing idea — again, showing both optimism and realism — and a bolder piece of music, with the drums held back till 160 seconds in, leaving Corinne to deliver a delicate vocal over a haze of violins and keyboards. It has a gorgeous slowness which recurs in I Would Like to Call It Beauty, another resonant idea, dreamed up by Jason's brother Phil as he and Corinne talked things over.

Late on, as if worried that she is getting too maudlin, Corinne throws in a couple of bustling up-tempo numbers. This inclination, while admirable in life, doesn't work so well in the studio: both tracks come out well-crafted but one-dimensional.

She has two more aces left in her hand, both ballads. Diving For Hearts is built on the best of the rocking riffs, with a sense of depth that fits the lyric perfectly. The Sea, inspired by another family tragedy the drowning of Corinne's grandfather when her mother was a child has a handsome late-Beatle-ish tune, which brings the album to a stirring close.

These tracks are so good that you wish she had left out some of the others. But even the duds have one great asset: Bailey Rae's voice, which remains radiant, intimate and natural. It's a textbook example of grace under pressure.