Minnie Driver - Everything I've Got In My Pocket (2004)

According to her bio, Minnie Driver was a singer long before she ever became an actress. Accordingly, Everything I've Got in My Pocket, her first album, contains ten Driver originals and a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Hungry Heart." The project began as an exhortation by producer Marc "Doc" Dauer, who had heard Driver's songs accompanied by her self-admitted "mangled" guitar playing. Dauer plays guitar and leads a band that includes multi-instrumentalist Rami Jaffee. As for the material, it's pleasant and the songs are ably written, and Driver can sing to boot. She writes all over the map, from the gently textured Americana of "Fast As You Can" to the suburban country-flavored "Home" to the lush folksy pop of "Invisible Girl," which feels like some slick teahouse session between Aimee Mann and Avril Lavigne. There's nothing wrong with anything here: it's pleasant, breezy, and gentle. But records come out like this every single day. These songs possess no edge -- nothing to distinguish them whatsoever other than that they were recorded by a famous actress. In addition, the Springsteen cover is an utter throwaway; she adds nothing to the song, and in fact drains the emotion from it. What does stand out is Dauer's fine, sympathetic production and his nuanced attention to detail, giving the record some weight and dimension. For the record, Driver is a developing songwriter, someone who is growing into her material and finding her way into her craft.