Critics pan Scarlett's album
2008-05-21 13:38
Los Angeles - Actress Scarlett
Johansson's latest film work may be getting the red carpet
treatment at Cannes, but her debut album, released on Tuesday,
is drawing fire from music critics.
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.
'Fussy and forgettable'
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.
The disc received a middling "C" grade from Entertainment
Weekly magazine, which wrote that her "expressionless voice"
was buried "deeply in the druggy ambiance".
And the Washington Post said it was possible to listen to
all 40-plus minutes of Johansson's album and "still have no
earthly idea what she sounds like".
All the same
"The album is ultimately too ethereal for its own good,"
the Post said. "Every song is like every other song, even the
ones that sound different."
The Rhino Records album consists of 11 tracks, all covers
of Waits songs except for one original piece co-written by
Johansson and Sitek. Two cuts feature David Bowie on backing
vocals.
The video for the first single, Falling Down, was
directed by Oscar-nominated Capote filmmaker Bennett Miller.
Johansson's latest film, Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina
Barcelona, premiered at the Cannes film festival in France on
Saturday.
The 23-year-old actress, who did not attend the
festival, plays a lovelorn American tourist in Spain.