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Minnie Driver
EVERYTHING I’VE GOT IN MY POCKET
(Zoë)
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You know you’re in dangerous water when the sticker on a CD’s jewel case trumpets contributions by members of the Wallflowers and Pete Yorn’s backing band. That’s what it says on the front of Everything I’ve Got in My Pocket, the musical debut by English actress Minnie Driver, who endeared herself to local moviegoers when she elected not to attempt a Boston accent as the love interest in Good Will Hunting. Driver repeats that decision on Everything, a modest collection of dusty, mostly self-penned alt-country ballads whose general lack of flavor points to why her session guys got the stick-on shout-out. Driver’s a perfectly competent singer: she handles the little melodic turns in "Home" without affecting an artificial twang, and she gives "Wire" a moody late-night vibe that could be Sade after a stint selling crocheted placemats in a suburban-Utah gift shop. And the playing by keyboardist Rami Jaffee and guitarist/producer Marc Dauer (not to mention the cruelly uncredited multi-instrumentalist Jeff Trott, of Sheryl Crow’s band) showcases her talent as sympathetically as you’d expect guys getting paid to do it would. Even if they could have warned Driver against slowing down Bruce Springsteen’s "Hungry Heart" to such a syrupy crawl. In Hollywood, they have editors for that. (Minnie Driver appears this Tuesday, November 23, at the Paradise, 967 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston; call 617-562-8800 or 617-423-NEXT.)
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