Atco
People tend to overreact one way or the other when they hear that Scarlett Johansson is involved in a project. Her reputation seems evenly split between those who think she’s just a celebrity looking to have as many irons in the fire as possible and those who believe she’s an artist exploring various means of expression. The truth of course probably falls somewhere in between those two. In her two musical ventures thus far Johansson hasn’t been all that much of a guiding creative force though the results have been surprisingly impressive. Her first album saw her working with Dave Sitek (TV on the Radio) to produce an album of Tom Waits covers; this time around she aligns herself with American singer-songwriter and guitarist Pete Yorn for Break Up .
The album is a neat and tidy nine tracks — eight of them penned by Yorn with a cover of Chris Bell’s “I Am the Cosmos” rounding things off. Yorn and Johansson split the lead vocal duties evenly and their voices complement each other nicely. The folk-pop of album openers “Relator” and “Wear and Tear” are catchy enough to be ready for Top 40 radio but it’s the tail end of the album that is most noteworthy. Closers “Clean” and “Someday” Break Up ’s slowest two tracks hint at an otherwise unrealized depth that this collaboration is capable of.
