Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Brit soul songstress Corinne Bailey Rae has delivered The Love EP, a stopgap collection of five covers that’s pleasant but not essential. My dislike for covers collections is well-documented, so the fact that I enjoy this as much as I do is something of an anomaly. However, three of the five songs are solid, and a fourth would be solid if not for it’s interminable length.

A few weeks ago, I featured Corinne’s version of Prince’s “I Wanna Be Your Lover” in a post. Her sparkly synth-heavy version of the Purple One’s breakthrough hit is definitely a different sound for her. That said, she does a pretty good job with it, and I’d say “Lover” stands as Rae’s best chance of scoring a pop radio hit. Corinne also does well with a close-to-the-original rendition of Paul McCartney’s “My Love” and a Corinne Bailey Rae-ized version of Bob Marley’s “Is This Love”. The Love EP loses steam with a 13 minute live version of Doris Day’s “Que Sera Sera”. Yes, it’s really 13 minutes long. Yes, it takes it’s cues from the Sly & the Family Stone version as opposed to Doris Day’s original. The first half of the song is tolerable, but they could’ve gone back into the studio and edited that bad boy down, especially since Corinne’s band doesn’t add anything interesting to the proceedings.

Final verdict: Pleasant, but not essential.

Grade: B