Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson
Break Up
Atco
By Al Kaufman
Actress Scarlett Johansson's CD of Tom Waits' covers, 2008's Anywhere I Lay My Head, met with mixed reviews. Be that as it may, kudos should be given to Johansson for choosing the way-too-talented-and-cool-to-be-commercially-successful Waits as the artist she wished to cover. She plans on doing it again when she covers Leonard Cohen.
This Yorn/Johansson collaboration actually pre-dates her Waits CD. The concept of Break Up came to Yorn in a dream after a week of insomnia. He wanted to make a record in the style of Serge Gainsbourg's recordings with 1960s bombshell Brigitte Bardot, and center it on a tempestuous affair. He decided Johansson was the closest thing to today's version of Bardot, and asked her if she was interested. The year was 2006, two years before the Lost in Translation star's first CD release.
Yorn, who released his fourth CD, Back and Forth, just three months ago, was especially protective of Break Up, and only released it under the insistence of his friends and family members who heard it and said it was too good to keep hidden.
They were right. Produced by electronic artist Sunny Levine, Break Up often takes on an electronic-folkie, Beck-like feel. It's pleasant sound. But what really sends it over the top is Johansson. At the risk of receiving death threats, this reviewer feels safe in saying that her drowsy drawl recalls the sound of none other than Billie Holiday. Her back and forth with Yorn on "Relator" and "I Don't Know What to Do," is sheer magic. When she is reduced to mere background vocals, the songs tend to drag. In other words, Johansson makes this CD. Those who dismissed her after her Waits CD need to give her another listen. Yorn proves that with the right material she is as good a singer as she is an actress.
