Corinne Bailey Rae has spoken to NME about how her rock roots shaped her new album ‘Black Rainbows’, and what it takes to win the Mercury Prize.
Rae was appearing on the red carpet of the launch of the Mercury Prize last week (Thursday July 25), where it was announced that she’d been shortlisted for acclaimed 2023 album ‘Black Rainbows‘ – facing off competition from records by the likes of Charli XCX, CMAT, The Last Dinner Party, Ghetts, English Teacher, Beth Gibbons, Barry Can’t Swim and more.
“I’ve been nominated for this prize before,” Rae told NME. “To me, it’s all about being on the list. No one is desperately hoping they win; they’re just really happy to be chosen out of hundreds of records. I’ve been a judge on this prize twice so I know what it is: it’s 10 people arguing to get it down to 12 artists.”
Speaking of her experience as a judge and what makes a Mercury-winning album, she continued: “We were just all looking for something to grab us. You know it’s not all about genre, or the new artists, or the artists that have been here before. It’s about what they’re saying, how they’re saying it and looking for something new.
“It’s a particular level of skill, of innovation. It’s something that holds together really well; something arresting.”
Rae also spoke about the encouraging diversity of this year’s Mercury shortlist, sharing that “it feels quite gender-balanced and it’s nice to see more Black and Brown people”. She recalled back in 1994 when M People‘s ‘Elegant Slumming’ beat the likes of The Prodigy, Pulp and Blur to take home the prize.
“I really liked that it was recognising that this music, that was popular and coming from a Black space, had value – even up against these huge totems,” she said.
“I like the company on the list and being in this room.”
As for her own nomination, Rae told us how she landed on the more raw jazz and punk-fuelled sounds on her surprise left turn of a new album, ‘Black Rainbows’.
“I always had this album as a side-project – I wasn’t going to put my name on it,” she admitted. “I was going to call it ‘The Chicago Project’, because it’s in response to the archive of The Stony Island Arts Bank.
“It was only when I saw my name written on the album when we got the artwork back that I thought, ‘No, actually, this is my thing’. I felt really free then because it wasn’t necessarily related to anything that I’d done before. That freedom is a place I always want to work from, from now on.”
While it may seem like a departure or a rebirth to some, Rae said that rock has always been part of her musical DNA.
“I feel like myself,” she told NME. “I came from an indie background. I got into Kurt Cobain the same week that I got into Billie Holiday. I was in an indie band [Helen] for years at the tail end of Riot Grrrl in Leeds with my three best girlfriends and boyfriend at the time.
“I know that world, and felt that I had to follow the feeling of the stories in the music. Some of them are super-aggressive, and that suits me too because I have that in my personality.”
Asked about her next move – and if her music might get even heavier from here – Rae said her mission was simply to “continue in freedom in music”.
“You can be really surprised by an audience,” she said. “I’ve flying around the world and playing these songs to people, and it’s the most unexpected people that get up and start moshing or push to the front.
“I wouldn’t want to be judged on what I like and don’t like, so why would I do that to my audience? I’m really grateful that they have come with me on this journey. My live show has always been as wide as possible. On my first tour I was playing a Led Zeppelin cover, just to be like: ‘And also this’. I don’t want to get boxed in. It’s really important.”
And other than herself, who would her money be on to take home the Mercury Prize this year?
“I really love English Teacher [nominated for debut ‘This Could Be Texas‘]. I saw Lily [Fontaine, frontwoman] perform a solo thing in Leeds,” she added. “That was really clever, funny and arresting. I’m glad that their voice is in the mix on this prize.”
The winner of the Mercury Prize 2024 will be announced in September.