The Divine Comedy (album) - Reception

Reception

Jovovich had to fight for her rights to have her own music released. While the album was not a commercial success, it was highly praised and well received by critics. Allmusic gave a favourable review: "the good results of The Divine Comedy are not as common. Produced by Rupert Hine, the album is a low-key, laid-back affair featuring guest appearances by Eric Bazilian and Martha Davis. Milla has a pleasant voice and above-average songwriting ability, and the songs are organic, light, airy concoctions that work well in their understated settings. The jaunty, folk-inflected "Gentlemen Who Fell" was an alternative rock hit. Other noteworthy cuts include the otherworldly "The Alien Song (For Those Who Listen)" and the medieval "Charlie". John McAlley of Rolling Stone called the album "remarkable", "strikingly mature and rich in invention", and as featuring "angst-laced poetry with vivid melodies and arrangements that find a common spirit in synth pop, European folk and psychedelic dream rock". CD Review also gave the album a favourable review: "This waiflike Russian emigre has modeled and made brief appearances in the films _Chaplin_ and _Dazed and Confused_. She's a decent songwriter with a poetic style (in the Kate Bush vein) and a smoky provocative voice. A wide range of exotic flavors--pipes, panflute, Eastern strings, and chants--make this first effort interesting and different from the onslaught of grrrl rock." Chicago Tribune gave the album a mixed review and said: "Backed by gently percussive arrangements spiced with unusual instruments like kalimba and harmonium, Milla impressively keeps both her imagery and her import-implying vocals in check; she's more akin to Tanita Tikaram, say, than Tori Amos (or soulmate Martha Davis, who supports Milla on the standout "Gentlemen Who Fell"). She supplies just the right touch of the dark drama suggested by the album's unnecessarily pretentious title, and gives all indications of a bright future." The Washington Post said: "is forever struggling with words and emotions on her debut album The Divine Comedy, forever trying to make sense of love or the lack of it. She never succeeds, of course, but her tenacity is what makes the album worth hearing. Evoking a curious combination of childlike innocence, Harlequin romance and hippie sentimentality, her songs are tone poems of a sort, inspired by vulnerability and wariness, sung in a small, plaintive, unguarded soprano. At times she seems hopelessly lovesick, a prime candidate for any heartbreaker's ruse, but on "You Did It All Before," "Clock," and "Don't Fade Away" she sounds a lot older and wiser, no stranger to hurt and disillusionment." Let It Rock said: "Milla Jovovich is not only attractive to the eye, but also pleasing to the ear. Her songs take form in fairytale poetry, as if she were some medieval storybook princess, held captive against her will in a Dragon's Lair. Authentic Russian acoustic instruments create a soundscape of delicate beauty, ethereal, yet soulful and heartfelt. An original". Microsoft Music Central said the album: "At times it's all too ethereal for its own good (though the second half is brighter and catchier), or a tad adolescent (she's still only 18). Milla already floats like a butterfly; now she needs to sting like a bee. Better will come".