better tuesday than never, i guess
I would like to lie and tell you that my decision to pick up Break Up, the 2009 collaborative effort from Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson was based on my love for the two musicians and their occasionally catchy catalogs. In fact, I only bought it because it was priced below a dollar per song (my magical threshold for wanting physical CDs) and because, historically, the albums I most want my girlfriends to hear are ostensibly break-up records.
While my history with Yorn is essentially non-existent (I used to listen to the song he did for the Spiderman Soundtrack a few years back), Scarlett appeals to me. Her Tom Waits covers were pleasant enough (and I’m a sucker for covers) and I kept “Sunshine” on repeat for more than a month. I don’t love her voice, but I find it pleasant enough and wondered how she’d tackle some original material designed for her.
Break Up is mostly a Pete Yorn album, though. He handles multiple instrumental duties and, presumably, songwriting tasks as well. I found the handclapper “Blackie’s Dead” to be distractingly infectious, and the soft and breathy use of Johansson on “Clean” have me convinced that she should always sing that way. The opener, “Relator” is simple enough fair - a smattering of Yorn’s acoustic guitar, Scarlett playing it low and husky, and forgettable but pleasant lyrics. Unfortunately, 6 of the 9 tracks on the disk sound more like “Relator” than like the standout tracks.