CD Review: Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head - J. Beasley

So anyone who knows me well knows I am a Tom Waits freak.

I love him. I love the 70's "bourbon drinkin' lounge lizard" Tom Waits, I love the 80's "angry pirate dwarf" Tom Waits and the 90's/00's "mid west manic preacher" Tom Waits. I have every record he's made on CD, a bunch on vinyl, and every b-side, hard to find, movie soundtrack cut I could download (legally of course).

So imagine my surprise when I found out last year that silver screen starlet of the hour Scarlett Johansson was recording a Tom Waits record! What? MY Tom Waits? This couldn't be. I mean the only music made by movie stars these days is, well crap of course. I have no beef with Johansson, I like her even! The Bill Murray movie was good enough, but most everything with Bill Murray is (I'm a BIG Ghostbusters guy). I had heard her sing "Summertime" on a download (legal!) and it wasn't half bad. However I was intrigued that she would choose to do this project over anything else to choose from. Tom Waits is MY savior, but I have a large contingent of friends (almost ALL actually) who not only don't care for Waits, but REALLY, REALLY, REALLY hate him. So the "mass appeal" of such an undertaking had to be a gamble at best.

So after months of speculation and waiting, the record "Anywhere I Lay My Head" has been released. I heard the first single "Falling Down" right here on myspace a few weeks before the record came out and......frankly i didn't like it.

I won't say I hated it. I just didn't care much for it. Too echoey (is that how you spell echoey?) and monotone. So I didn't really hold out much hope. The single, "Falling Down" (off the Waits record Big Time) is one of my all-time favorites.......in fact I'm going to my itunes quick to play it..........there.......gooood........oh, where was I?

Oh yeah, it's one of my favs, so maybe I'm just a little biased. But it seems that when you hear a "cover" of a song you love it's never as good. I was also pretty surprised that of the 10 Waits tracks she covers (there's one original as well) there were only three that I counted among my favorites! And not a single "standard" Tom Waits tune that's already been covered. Ya know, "Ol '55" by the Eagles or "Downtown Train" by Rod Stewart (who oddly enough is a big Waits fan) or "Heartattack and Vine" by Screamin Jay Hawkins (probably lesser known). I actually had to go back and make a mix of the Tom Waits versions of the songs before the record came out so I could really familiarize myself with the material and make an honest judgement when this certain rotten egg of a record by a know nothing movie brat was laid on the public!

So here, after a week of listening is my most precious opinion......it's really good.

Yup. There it is. I kid you not, I like it as much as any other record I've purchased this year (though I haven't gotten my hands on the new Cure record yet) and more than most! Now let me be clear, Johansson's voice is not a power. She has been surrounded with a who's who of indie darlings from various unsuccessful indie bands (save the guitarist from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs with the kooky hair) and they are good, but she gets a little lost. And I know she CAN sing, I've heard it, but she doesn't really do it on this record. But despite all this it is solid record (my wife hates it when I call things "solid" or "tight" it's kinda funny to watch her squirm). The tracks are intrestingly arranged and her voice at times is simply hypnotic. I even like the dance version of "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" (last done by the Ramones in the late 90's)! The clincher is that I've CHOSEN to listen to it at least once a day for a week! weird.

So, my respect goes out to Scarlett. She did what not many could do in my book. She did Waits a bit of justice, maybe it will even expand his audience!!!!

No, probably not. But maybe it will give her that first push of "indie cred" she was certainly trying to obtain by releasing this rather than some crappy pop song.