SLEEPING WITH SCARLETT JOHANSSON
Today I had my siesta with Scarlett Johansson.
Unfortunately, it’s not that I pulled big time – she was only on my mp3 player. I was listening to her new album of Tom Waits covers .
Tom Waits, it goes without saying, has one of the most distinctive voices in rock. Scarlett, it has to be said, has one of the least distinctive.
Immediately we encounter the crux of the problem with this record.
Obviously it would be ridiculous to expect her to try to emulate Wait’s singing style – she’s only 23 and she’d have to have smoked around 50 cigarettes a day from the age of 5 to get even half way towards her gravel-voiced hero.
An alternative would have been a high risk strategy of doing a major re-vamp of the songs which would almost certainly ended in tears and would have had Waitsian fans up in arms.
The middle way, which is attempted here, is to perform the songs relatively straight and call upon the help of some talented mates.
TV On The Radio’s David Andrew Siteks co-wrote the one original tune of the album (‘Song For Jo’) as well as producing the record and supplying his multi-instrumental skills. The finished result is,according to the website link for the album, “murky and thick” which is another way of saying her voice is buried in the mix somewhere if you’re bothered enough to listen for it. A certain Mr. David Bowie sings on two tracks, “Falling Down” and “Fannin Street”, an indication of the celebrity endorsement she can call upon.
The decision to make such a record could be construed as (delete as appropriate) :
bold /imaginative /presumptive / arrogant/ill advised/respectful.
If you’re kind you’d say this was the kind of dreamy pop that might make you want to go lie on a branch with wellingtons on – which is what you see her doing on the album’s cover shot.
It’s certainly not the turkey it might easily have been but it’s plain that the record didn’t get made on Ms Johansson’s vocal talents alone.
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