Album Review: Actor Turned NYPD Detective Turned Actor Michael Devine Sings His Heart Out On An Album 10 Years In The Making With SENTINELS

Heigh Ho, dear lovely rainbow tribe, welcome back to Bobby’s CD sandbox where we offer our broken-down breakdowns of new music releases. So, strap in and get ready, as Bobby goes on the record ABOUT the record.

This week’s album entry in the BobbyFiles comes from Former NYPD Detective Sergeant Michael Devine… You read that right my lambs, one of New York’s finest has put out a record album. To be clear, although Michael is a native New Yorker and a blue blood from a cop family, his 22-year career as a Detective with the NYPD was not the path he intended to trod; rather, it was The Boards. But this is not just a story of retiring from one career and picking up another. This is the story of a return to a path and a first love of acting and the career for which he originally trained. You see, way back when, Michael got his BFA degree in acting from Montclair State University, but at 26, after making his life the pursuit of acting work, he felt the pull of his family legacy and a higher calling to protect and serve. Fast forward to today, though, and this actor turned Detective turned actor is back in the performing saddle with more than 40 credits to his IMDB page and, now, two albums of the music he loves to sing. His first collection, SONGS OF VALOR AND HOPE, released in 2011, was inspired by his Police work at Ground Zero in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, and the layers of health difficulties, both mental and physical, he and others developed as a result. Stating that VALOR & HOPE was “Released mostly as an exercise in personal recovery,” the album, nonetheless, hit #1 in four categories on Amazon. Fast forward, again, to 2023… but wait!  We can’t fast forward to 2023 because Michael began his work on his next collection, SENTINELS, in 2012. Desiring, this time, to return to his roots in stage and screen, Michael put together a songlist of works that spoke to his actor’s heart and, as such, felt he did not want to shortchange the work in any way. Times being what they are and a policeman’s/actor’s pay being what THEY are, the dream of producing his next album with full orchestrations seemed unattainable by conventional practices of gathering musicians, rehearsing together, going into the studio, recording, and PAYING for all of it… there was just no fast-forwarding to be had. Undaunted, Michael spent the next decade sewing his musical quilt one player and one instrument at a time.  After slowly piecing his orchestra together and marrying those sounds to his vocals, Michael Devine, the actor who is recognizable for roles opposite Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman in THE UNDOING (all 6 eps), and 10 out of the 22 eps of the TV show LIMITLESS, has delivered his labor of love.

In a NEWSWEEK article, Devine stated, “SENTINELS … is not an album one might dance to, and it probably won't be on anyone's workout playlist…” Truth, since most of the numbers on SENTINELS are old war horse ballads from Broadway and Hollywood. There is no specific journey one takes with this music, and each song is its own performance piece. Starting off big with ANTEHM from CHESS, we hear his clear, open, full tenor ringing out nicely, and nicely trained, too. The fact that there are some slight pitch issues here and there can be attributed to a years-long recovery from his toxic ground zero assignments AND that this song will have any performer singing at the limit of their voice. Other than these momentary slides off a note or two, the performance is mostly beautiful. Cut #4 - a truly lovely FALLING SLOWLY from ONCE has a range and emotional content that lay the best in his voice and makes the most of his acting. His emotions are raw and real, as what he is feeling here is more important to this actor than what he is singing. Cut #7, YOU’LL NEVER WALK ALONE, has nice intimacy in the opening phrases, as he sings into his listener's ear about moving forward, regardless of adversity. His lighter production on the “Big Notes” of this song lift him up and carry him safely through the challenges of this music, though, in the end, this one comes off a bit “Church Tenor-y,” overall. It is Cut #8 - MAY IT BE from LORD OF THE RINGS, with its Celtic feel, that gives his voice some of its best expression on this album. His Irish is showing and the music marries with his interpretation and intonation very well.

For the album, as a whole, Michael’s penchant for the melancholy ballad can feel a touch lugubrious (what?! Bobby knows words!), if one is going from top to bottom in one sitting, and his work is not reinventing any musical wheels here. He sings very pretty, for sure, and that which is beautiful is very beautiful, and that which falls short does so only a little and is pardonable given Mr. Devine’s life experiences and years-long struggle with toxic 9/11 issues. Bobby, though, does have to call out Michael's very fine work Producing, Orchestrating, Mixing, and Engineering this album from top to bottom over an entire decade. The album at no time feels piecemeal and the blending of voice and instruments is masterfully done. If you’re the kind of music fan who buys the albums of the other Michaels (Ball & Crawford) or other singers singing earnestly in voices they have strenuously trained, then Michael Devine belongs in your collection, and there are things here for you, for sure. For Bobby and for now, this one receives 

3 1/4 Out Of 5 Rainbows

SENTINELS was released on August 18, 2023, and will be available on all music platforms. It can now be ordered on Apple's iTunes store. SONGS OF VALOR AND HOPE is also available on all music platforms.

You Can See And Hear Everything About Michael Devine & SENTINELS - Including links to  the album - On His LinkTree: HERE

CREDITS & THINGS

Guitar - Bruno Elisabetsky, Michael Devine 

Strings - Luke Moller, Yoed Nir

Woodwinds/ Brass - Sandro Friedrich, Roy Laverty

Piano - Anna Yarbrough, Michael Devine

Percussion - Roy Laverty

Produced, Orchestrated, Mixed, and Engineered by Michael Devine

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