I’ve never given Corinne Bailey Rae much consideration. At some point, I liked “Put Your Records On” enough to buy the song (perhaps trying to undo the damage of three too many American Idol performances), but the British singer-songwriter’s breezy tunes have never been my particular cup of sleepy tea.

But as I was deciding what cover song to feature today, I discovered that Bailey Rae had recorded Belly’s “Low Red Moon” for The Love EP, an all-others’-songs affair she released in January. The covers of tunes by Prince, Belly, Bob Marley, Paul McCartney, and Doris Day were recorded around the world as Bailey Rae toured for her 2010 album, The Sea (the first following her husband’s accidental death in 2008).

Surveying the five tracks on The Love EP, the inclusion of a song by ’90s alt-rockers Belly really sticks out. That Bailey Rae calls the heavy, dark, and brooding “Low Red Moon” one of her favorites immediately makes her a much more interesting artist. The track appears dead-center on Belly’s 1993 debut, Star, and trudging along for five and a half minutes, is the album’s longest.  Belly frontwoman/songwriter Tanya Donelly’s then-fiance, Chick Graning, is on guitar.

“Belly were one the of the prime influences on my band Helen,” Bailey Rae told Street Date earlier this year. “I was addicted to ‘Star’ as a teenager and learnt loads about guitar playing just listening to them. Here we have made the song, in my opinion, more aggressive and slightly ’60s science fiction.”

I hear something much more faithful, but that doesn’t make her take on “Low Red Moon” any less impressive, as it completely upends my expectations of Bailey Rae. Her typically sweet voice (higher and sweeter than Donelly’s, for sure) is a striking counterpoint to guitar grunge swirling all around her.

Purchase Corinne Bailey Rae – “Low Red Moon” (Belly cover) via iTunes, Amazon MP3.