Album: Minnie Driver

Everything I've Got in my Pocket, LIBERTY

Until the success of her breakthrough movie Circle of Friends prompted a sudden career change, Minnie Driver was about to embark upon a singing career under the guidance of impresario/producer Denny Cordell, who had helped establish the careers of Leon Russell, Joe Cocker, JJ Cale and Tom Petty. Listening to Everything I've Got in my Pocket, it's hard to imagine what he heard in her unremarkable voice - though back then she probably wasn't presenting herself as a drab jazz-lite balladeer in the vein of Katie Melua and Norah Jones. Recorded with various Wallflowers and Pete Yorn's backing band, these 11 tracks have neat but colourless sub-Americana arrangements, buffed with the bogus sophistication of brushed drums, organ, and ambient keyboard pads. Rarely straying from the safety of cliché, Driver's lyrics are dull, Dido-esque ruminations on emotions, which manage to avoid even a hint of emotional conviction in their presentation. They don't even have the air of obsessional desper

Until the success of her breakthrough movie Circle of Friends prompted a sudden career change, Minnie Driver was about to embark upon a singing career under the guidance of impresario/producer Denny Cordell, who had helped establish the careers of Leon Russell, Joe Cocker, JJ Cale and Tom Petty. Listening to Everything I've Got in my Pocket, it's hard to imagine what he heard in her unremarkable voice - though back then she probably wasn't presenting herself as a drab jazz-lite balladeer in the vein of Katie Melua and Norah Jones. Recorded with various Wallflowers and Pete Yorn's backing band, these 11 tracks have neat but colourless sub-Americana arrangements, buffed with the bogus sophistication of brushed drums, organ, and ambient keyboard pads. Rarely straying from the safety of cliché, Driver's lyrics are dull, Dido-esque ruminations on emotions, which manage to avoid even a hint of emotional conviction in their presentation. They don't even have the air of obsessional desperation that marks some vanity projects; instead, Driver's demeanour throughout suggests a fear of dissuading prospective purchasers by too individual a performance. The results are desultory and vapid. What's the point?