Union-Tribune July 28, 1994

Grade: 3/5

An 18-year-old model-actress-singer, Milla Jovovich can look uncannily like the young Lauren Bacall. However, Milla -- she's been stripped of her last name for professional reasons -- is in no danger of having Andy Williams called in to overdub her vocal parts, (as nearly happened to Bacall in "To Have and Have Not.")

Instead, looming large over Milla's remarkably assured debut album is the specter of another singer, Kate Bush. That a precocious young woman -- Milla wrote these songs when she was 16 -- should be in the thrall of Bush's exotic dream world is only natural. And Milla adds a bit of her own natural exoticism.

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.

Milla performs Saturday at the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre downtown; Gregory Page opens.