Maria McKee: High Dive : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

After a long, albeit sporadic, relationship with a major label (Geffen), Maria McKee has gone independent on her self-released fourth solo record, High Dive, her first in seven years. McKee made a name for herself as frontwoman of the little-bit-country Los Angeles band Lone Justice. But the songwriter with the larger-than-life voice and eternal pout has remained on the outskirts of the music industry, too much an autonomous spirit to be reined in. High Dive is an opulent slice of California pop, abundantly orchestrated with various strings, horns and keyboards, over which McKee takes life's heartaches with a chaser of relentless optimism. "I took a high dive into the shallow end," she sings on the title track, then delves into a jubilant chorus of "bah bah bah bahs." Little surprises are disarming, like the disembodied whistle in "To the Open Spaces," an instant road-trip classic that indulges McKee's love of anthems, and the mood-setting saxophone winding its way beneath "Be My Joy," ending on a cacophonous trail. The arrangements are so big and dramatic that they sometimes threaten to smother McKee's voice, but her singing -- convincingly emotional and aged to a luster -- ultimately shines through.

MEREDITH OCHS
(April 21, 2003)

(MEREDITH OCHS)