Johansson collaborates with Yorn on Break Up
The movie star rejoins the music scene with the album.
Published Aug. 28, 2009
Most people are shocked when they find out that Scarlett Johansson, a world-famous actress known for her work in such films as "Lost in Translation" and "The Horse Whisperer," also has an amazing singing voice.
Back in 2006, Pete Yorn, the New Jersey-based singer-songwriter who wrote the score for the 2000 film "Me Myself & Irene," had a dream. Yorn has been a part of the music industry for awhile and has put out many solo albums through the years. He was motivated to produce an album with Johansson when he became familiar with the albums French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg put out with actress Brigitte Bardot back in the 1960s.
Taking what he knew about this famous collaboration and the dream he had, he contacted Johansson and asked her to collaborate with him on a concept album, focused specifically on duets detailing a relationship between the two singers. Johansson was intrigued and agreed to help Yorn out with the project.
Fast-forward three years and we have the album they created back in 2006, Break Up. Although it took three years for the record to come out, Johansson recorded all of her vocal tracks in just two afternoon sessions back in 2006. Even with this short recording time, her voice is perfectly adequate for a project like this. She sounds just as trained as most of the female singers heard on the indie airwaves today. This shouldn't come as a surprise though, as she has already put out an album and various songs this decade.
"I had this golden opportunity to record and thought I would do maybe an album of standards, because I'm not a songwriter, I'm a vocalist," Johansson said in an interview with Canadian magazine, Exclaim.
Yorn wrote eight of nine tracks on Break Up, but Johansson's collaborative efforts really make this album stand out from the rest of Yorn's solo work. Originally, the album was only going to be shown to friends and family and kept under lock. But the overwhelming response Yorn and Johansson received when people were first hearing the completed record convinced them to release it to the general public.
Quite simply, Break Up is a pop album filled with themes of love and longing. The album starts out with the first single, "Relator," which was released back in May of this year and has started to pop up on college radio stations. This track really generated some hype for the album, as people became more curious about this seemingly unlikely collaboration. The pop-y track, complete with boy-girl vocals and handclaps, is an opening song and really sets the vibe for the rest of the record.
A lot of the songs on Break Up follow similar trends and themes, but "I Am the Cosmos," a cover song, originally written by Chris Bell of Big Star, changes up the flow a bit. Johansson's vocals in this song, in my opinion, outshine Bell's original cut.
The interesting collaboration on Break Up is reason enough to grab this album. Between the superb songwriting by Yorn and Johansson's absolute natural singing talent, the album shines. These duets make the Moldy Peaches sound like fifth graders who just learned what each other's body parts look like. Yorn and Johansson create a sound so mature and connect with each other so well, it's almost unbelievable they haven't done something like this before.