A good friend of mine turned me on to Break Up (iTunes/Amazon), the Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson collaboration, so I was really psyched to get it for my birthday. It's surprisingly good; Scarlett's voice has much more room to breathe in Yorn's electro-electric-acoustic web. She, like Cassandra Wilson, has the type of husky contralto that lends itself better to more airy arrangements.
I think part of the problem with Anywhere I Lay My Head (iTunes/Amazon) was that her voice was too far down in the mix--beneath the music. It has to sit on top of the mix--something Wilson learned with Craig Street when she recorded Blue Light Til Dawn (iTunes/Amazon)--placed like a body on a metaphorical bed of roses--which Yorn does to great effect. I think Anywhere would have been successful had it been more acoustic. You don't mask a voice like that--you feature it.
Featured Song: "I Don't Know What to Do," Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson (from Break Up)
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