Here Comes the Sun

Being touted as pop music's Next Big Thing can be a curse of expectations. But as nearly the entire pop firmament appears to constellate around Corinne Bailey Rae, the bright yet wide-eyed 26-year-old from Leeds does not seem blinded by the marketing lights. Advance radio play, Internet preorders and, most strikingly, being voted the "Sound of 2006" in a BBC poll of experts have left her unspoiled, at least for now.

"I don't feel much like a product at the moment," she insists, "because I've made sure the songs don't fit neatly into one camp or another. I've been allowed...

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