A&M
Pop, 1993

Most people know Sarah Brightman as the operatic pop chanteuse with a voice so ethereal it could probably summon celestial beings… or, if you’re not a fan, as the lady who made vocal fry a legitimate artistic choice.

Ah, but do you know that, but for a brief, glorious moment in the 90s, before The Fifth Element introduced us to an actual alien opera singer, Ms Brightman decided to become the Earthbound version of Diva Plavalaguna?

Thus, Dive was born: an album entirely themed around water, co-produced with her then-real-life romantic partner Frank Peterson, aka The Guy Who Brought You Gregorian Chants Over Synths and Moaning Women. The result is Enigma-meets-Eurovision, both an unintentionally campy spectacle and a genuinely fascinating musical experiment.

From the get-go, Dive establishes its aquatic credentials with Captain Nemo, a cover of the Dive (no relation) original. The song’s sonar-like horns have been swapped for orchestral swells, making it sound like Ms Brightman is actually performing on a literal underwater stage. The album’s cover suggests she’s a siren luring men to a watery demise, but in reality, the concept is more Disney’s The Little Mermaid than HP Lovecraft’s Dagon. Here, she’s just a shipwrecked maiden who befriends a dolphin. It’s all very National Geographic: The Musical.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a Sarah Brightman solo effort without a few covers.

Salty Dog (originally by Procol Harum) is given the aquatic orchestral treatment but comes with a mild hazard warning: Ms Brightman teeters dangerously close to caterwauling, a choice that may inspire some fans of the original to take up piracy just to hunt this version down.

Then there’s Johnny Wanna Live, a reworking of Sandra’s song that has been repurposed into a full-blown marine life conservation anthem. While its intentions are noble (save the dolphins, people), the arrangement is surprisingly pedestrian: aside from Ms Brightman’s dramatic wailing at the climax, which suggests that maybe Johnny did not, in fact, want to live.

The real showstopper of the album is Once in a Lifetime, which began life as a Gregorian song about a grand, tragic romance and somehow morphed into a BDSM affair gone wrong. Yes, just like with The Fifth Element, Sarah Brightman also accidentally predicted Fifty Shades of Grey! Who knew? The song’s luscious melody and dramatic chorus remain intact, but now with lyrics that sound suspiciously like someone’s diary entry from an ill-advised dungeon experience. Whatever the intent, the result is gloriously extra, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

The album’s most Enigma-like moment comes with La Mer, a reimagining of Charles Trenet’s classic that swaps out French nostalgia for full-on underwater adventure in IMAX 3D. Ms Brightman breathes and coos seductively through the verses like she’s about to whisper something forbidden in your ear, and the track drips with lush, swirling ambiance—this is the sound of diving into an enchanted ocean at sunset with a choir of mermaids cheering you on. Pure cinematic bliss.

Some tracks in the album feel a little too grounded for a concept album about water magic and/or drowning in style. The Second Element is a lovely ballad, but The Second Element II (which goes country for some reason) is actually the better version. Other songs lean into radio-friendly pop dressed up with orchestral flourishes, which is nice, but when you’ve got Sarah Brightman convincing you that she lives in Atlantis, you kind of want every track to go full underwater spectacle.

That being said, Dive still succeeds in making the listener feel like they’re floating weightlessly through an ocean of over-the-top theatricality. It’s fun, it’s immersive, and it never takes itself too seriously, despite featuring songs about dying dolphins and being locked in cages for pleasure and punishment.

In the end, it is a concept album that manages to be both a bizarre fever dream and a genuinely enjoyable musical escape. It’s ambitious, ridiculous, and unexpectedly delightful—exactly what you want when Sarah Brightman decides to take a deep dive into le grand bleu.