Dive

Recorded with a large contingency of German musicians, British stage-diva Sarah Brightman's Dive is a loose concept album tied together by a common thread of nautical references. Opening with the short, spoken-word piece that is the title track, there are constant images of the sea throughout the lyrics. The material sounds like what you would expect from Brightman's ex-husband Andrew Lloyd Webber. It's all fairly pretentious power ballads, but there's no denying that they're melodic. Brightman has a powerful set of pipes and, actually, shows a good deal of restraint. There are several songs that are a cut above like "Captain Nemo" and "Seven Seas." She does go over the top on her cover of Procol Harum's "A Salty Dog," but she redeems herself with the closer, "The Second Element II." The song, a reprise of an earlier track, is a stripped-down, acoustic affair with a subdued vocal by Brightman.