wears the trousers magazine

Minnie Driver
Seastories •••
Rounder

The worst thing about this album is that it’s not actually that bad. By rights it should be. Its author is, after all, Minnie Driver, the woman who went from kicking off Alan Partridge’s ladyboy fascination as a transsexual writer in the first episode of ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’ to leading lady in ‘Grosse Point Blank’ in a few short years. Like other meteoric risers The Spice Girls, however, Minnie’s acting career (itself an object lesson in the triumph of ambition over ability) failed to outlast the 1990s. One duff costume drama too many and a burgeoning reputation as a prima donna left her washed up on has-been beach with only one way out. The last ditch career choice of many a knackered actress: singing.

Minnie’s first album, Everything I’ve Got In My Pocket, was a grimly incongruous splodge that dribbled into the lower reaches of a chart so bored with Dido imitators in 2004 that it barely registered indifference, never mind derision. Fast forward to 2008 and Driver, now back on the small screen in hit series ‘Riches’, is giving music another go with Seastories. Ditching the by-numbers compositions that made her debut so teeth-grindingly dull, the result is, at its best, a pleasant slice of slick country pop. The title track especially is a piece of woozy barroom melancholia that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Kathleen Edwards album. ‘King Without A Queen’ covers similar ground, her limited yelp nicely concealed by slide guitar and a deft beat.

It wouldn’t be the recognisable work of Minnie Driver without at least some display of baffling vanity. For this look no further than ‘Sorry Baby’, a song that starts promisingly enough with echoing keyboards before disintegrating into Sheryl Crow karaoke – a move repeated on ‘Cold Dark River’, a song that suggests that her influences are still somewhat stuck in the ‘90s. Having taken us through ‘country’, ‘folk’ and ’stripped-back’ Minnies of varying quality, Seastories closes with a strong trio of songs. The woozy ‘London Skies’ benefits from a beautiful arrangement that lifts a potentially sappy song with an astringent dash of banjo-playing, with slide guitar put to good use on ‘Real Life’. Album closer, ‘Love Is Love’ even throws us a curveball with a minute-long piece of jangly folk reminiscent of All About Eve.

Though it would be pleasing on one level to dismiss Seastories as a disaster – the vanity project of a wealthy woman able to afford the best arrangers and song doctors in the business (Paris Hilton does country, perhaps) – the end product is far from a disgrace. Good, in fact. Well done, Minnie – just don’t expect us to like your films.

Chris McCrudden
UK release date: 12/05/08