Search - Various Artists :: I'm More Than What I Seem

The title I'm More Than What I Seem expresses a sentiment that snakes across the human spectrum. But a convincing case can be made that girls 8 to 14--this record's target audience--are its surest sympathizers; they're also prime prey for acute growing pains, peer pressure, alienating lapses of faith, and various crises of self-confidence. Fortunately, Celia Straus, adolescent expert and author of Prayers on My Pillow, saw fit to adapt her spiritually and emotionally nourishing poems on such hairy subjects to a spoken-word CD. Better still, a handful of celebrity moms stood behind her by contributing their influential, if not always recognizable, vocals. Annette Bening breathes both vulnerability and confidence into a track on loneliness. Blythe Danner celebrates the self with "The Song of My Soul Is Mine for the Singing," part of a track called "My Blessings." Amy Irving and Swoosie Kurtz tackle the occasional trickiness of truth-telling. And Kathleen Turner delivers a hopeful reading of "Let Me Love Myself So Much" on a well-conceived mirror-themed track. A host of other notables, Christine Baranski and Vanity Fair's Leslie Bennetts among them, also lend their talents to these selections, each enhanced by original, mind-defogging New Age music. Most appealing about this record (other than its producers' ongoing contribution to the Motherless Daughters charity), though, is its packaging. The CD is tucked inside a tiny, gorgeously illustrated hardcover book that not only lists each poem's words but includes insirational, empathetic, and sometimes quirky quotes from a bevy of mothers and daughters. --Tammy La Gorce