Enter a zip code
CD
| 1 | |
| 2 | |
| 3 | |
| 4 | |
| 5 | |
| 6 | |
| 7 | |
| 8 | |
| 9 | |
| 10 | |
| 11 | |
A funny thing happened to Minnie Driver on the way to recording her debut album: She became a movie star. Signed to Island Records in the U.K. in the early '90s, Driver started getting roles in movies such as Circle of Friends, Grosse Pointe Blank, and Good Will Hunting (for which she received an Academy Award nomination), and she set aside her musical aspirations. Until now. Everything I've Got in My Pocket is a sultry, languid set of adult pop with hints of Sarah McLachlan, Beth Orton, and Dido. Driver wrote all but one of the songs -- a molasses-slow version of "Hungry Heart" that turns Bruce Springsteen's celebration into something more desperate and forlorn -- and she's a skilled scribe of gentle ballads and softly lilting love songs. With help from producer Marc Dauer (Pete Yorn), Driver colors "So Well" and other songs with ghostly electronics, but Pocket is full of subtle variety: "Ruby Adeline" is a quiet acoustic ballad; "Wire" is dark and haunting; "Fast as You Can," with its pedal steel, veers toward contemporary country. There's no moonlighting here: Everything I've Got in My Pocket shows that Driver is as seductive a singer as she is an actress. Steve Klinge, Barnes & Noble