Pitchfork

"Do you remember when... we used to take our time?" asks jazzy British crooner Corinne Bailey Rae on this oozing slow jam from Lay It Down, evoking long pre-Facebook evenings of love letters and wallowing brass sections when, according to Rev. Al Green, "Everythang was easy/ Everythang was OK" Funny-- a whole host of economic indicators remembered Green's mid-1970s heyday as anything but "easy," but that's maybe the point: With his world-weary groan-- a voice that breaks into euphoria at the brink of exhaustion-- Green's got the kind of instrument you can clock a recession to. Hear that voice on your radio, and you knows times is hard. So, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, if you're reading this, here's your red flag: Judging from their liberal use of open spacing-- there's like eight snare taps in the whole piece-- the Reverend and his protégé want to take this nation through an economic slow-down, "just to fall in love again."

In the cannon of Al Green duets, it's not easy to be a songstress who can share the spotlight with his magnificent presence without over-playing one's cards, but Rae does just that. Onstage with a legend of relaxation, the 29-year-old proves herself patiently, casually noodling around the beat with that earthy enchantress melisma that she borrows from Erykah Badu, with all of Badu's naturalism, but none of her rigid, Billie Holiday weirdness. The lyrics drift by like mileposts on a long night's drive-- sometimes Al Green mumbles them, incoherently. When he drifts back towards yesterday's snoozy soul platitudes Rae keeps him-- and us-- from nodding off, with her avant-garde sense of rhythm and style. She's the Neo, he's the Soul.