ARTIST: Scarlett Johansson
ALBUM: Anywhere I Lay My Head
RELEASE DATE: May 20, 2008
WEB DEBUT: April 30, 2008
ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: As an album of Tom Waits interpretations, this is really weak–Johansson’s flat, vacant voice is so buried in the mix and covered in echo that often you can’t even make out the lyrics. Had it not been sold as such, I’d never guess that this was a Waits tribute album, and the original “Song For Jo” is hardly discernable in the dreamy stream of it all. As a TV On The Radio spin-off, however, Head is pretty enjoyable, full of grand backdrops guaranteed to make a 4AD devotee’s day. While the album’s male background vocalists sound awfully familiar, only on the closing “Who Are You?” does the music achieve TVOTR’s usual turgidity.
Most of the tracks slowly swoon, with ScarJo happy to ape Hope Sandoval and other sleepy-effect pedal sirens, though the uptempo drum machine track on “I Don’t Want To Grow Up” makes it sound as dated as a Four-Calendar Cafe outtake. Proof of the singer’s secondary status is offered by an organ-led instrumental of “Fawn” that builds to a ridiculous saxophone solo worthy of Curtis Stigers. (Then again, maybe ScarJo was playing the sax.) Dave Sitek’s arrangements may not do justice to Waits’ songwriting, but they make the album frequently gorgeous, if unaffecting.
As a TV On The Radio spin-off, however, Head is pretty enjoyable
otm. I like what I’ve heard so far, though I’m a bit of a TVOTR fanboy I suppose.
(No comment on the last phrase in the above quote.)
I’ll give anything resembling lukewarm This Mortal Coil a couple listens.
Can’t Zooey Deschanel just punch her and the throat and stop this madness?
@AL: You’ve got a sharp eye, my friend!
Call me crazy, but I l kinda think she sounds like Nico trying to sing with Jim Morrison’s junk still in her mouth.
Uh, “in the throat.”
That album cover looks poorly photoshopped
@queensissy: We can only hope. Although, if the first single is any indication, that mission has already been accomplished.