Minnie Driver, Sea Stories

My review, as posted on Amazon. My first time ever doing that!

Sultry, Sensational, But No Surprise, August 23, 2007
By "Antoniafufu" AZ USA

Ms. Driver applies all her skills as an actor to her musical expression in this CD: nuance, heat, subtlety, aplomb, and genuine presence. Sea Stories has lived in my CD players (work, vehicle, & home) since I purchased it 4 weeks ago. Her ability to take a single word and massage 12 emotions out of it represents, to me, her effortless interaction with her deepest self and her willingness to deliver what she finds there. Listen to her sing the phrase:

"They're smiling but they're thinking:
'there but for the grace of God'",

from the infinitely exquisite [& my favorite] track 'Coming Back to Life.'

I'm also tickled by the character Ms. Driver conjures for me in 'Mary': 'Go ahead and cry, but let that be the last thing you give him, Honey, now let's go inside & make a voodoo doll' ...

Sea Stories ambushes the senses in the loveliest way -- not at all by sneak attack, but with its directness, its accessibility, the maturity of melody & lyric, and the range afforded by Minnie Driver's vocal skill. Not at all surprising, either, is the imprint of her creative hand in the writing of the songs -- her ownership of their emotion and message by virtue of her immediate center in the songwriting lends itself to the full-bodied ease of her delivery.

This is one of the few PERFECT CD's ever to have entered my world.