Scarlett Johansson and Pete Yorn’s Break Up

Last year, Scarlett Johansson surprised a lot of people when she released her album of Tom Waits songs, not least of all me. I loved the album, Anywhere I Lay My Head – her smoky voice perfectly suited Waits tunes. Produced by Dave Sitek and with backing from Bowie, the album featured some of my most listened to tracks from last year. Her follow up, released last month, is a collection of original songs written by and recorded with Pete Yorn, called The Break Up Album and this theme runs right through it – misery, anger, loss and disappointment punctuate an album of reasonable tracks. The opening track is perhaps unfortunately the best track on the album. That’s not to take from the pleasantness of some of the other songs, but none of them reach the perfect sound of Relator.