LAST YEAR, Mary Lee’s Corvette released a faithful version of Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks album: musically a questionable project, but quite a success in profile-raising terms. 700 Miles puts the spotlight back on Mary Lee Kortes’s songwriting. And a good thing too. Starting with The Nothing Song, a slice of Buddhist pop (“All I want is to want nothing, but that’s still wanting something”), Kortes proves the acclaim she has received in America is well deserved. Her voice veers from the gentle charm of Laura Cantrell to the rockier, Chrissie Hynde phrasing of Haunting Me. The most surprising moment is the funky More Stupider — the tale of a woman who realises that she could have kept her boyfriend if she’d acted dumber. The minimal chorus is worthy of Prince at his peak. Two stars -- Mark Ewards, The London Times