Culture

Hang Down Your Head: Scarlett Johansson's Cover Album Panned

by Jordan Yerman | May 21, 2008 at 06:42 am

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She got a stolen check book and leg's up to here
Singing into a hairbrush
Right in front of the mirror
Oh yeah... my baby's lowdown!

(Lowdown, Tom Waits)

You gotta admit, though, it takes guts to do an entire album of Tom Waits covers, but Scarlett Johansson went for it anyway. His voice alone is inimitable, and his music is iconic to the extent that you cannot hear a remake without comparing it to the original.

(Having said that, there are far too many people out there who think Downtown Train is a Rod Stewart song)

"Anywhere I Lay My Head," a collection of Tom Waits songs recorded by the star of such films as "Match Point," "Lost in Translation" and "Girl with a Pearl Earring," has been described by the actress as "an intimate experience."

But numerous reviews of the album complained that Johansson's vocals end up lost in the lush arrangements of producer David Andrew Sitek, the guitarist and keyboardist for the indie rock band TV on the Radio.

For some critics, that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"Johansson's voice is unremarkable and her pitch sometimes unsteady; she's a faintly goth Marilyn Manson lost in a sonic fog," wrote Rolling Stone magazine, which gave her a lukewarm 2.5 stars out of five.

Britain's Mojo magazine called the recordings "fussy and forgettable," adding that the decision to begin the album with an instrumental was hardly a vote of confidence in Johansson's vocal abilities.