With a pair of Hollywood starlets gracing the world with albums this fall, could their combined box office draws pump some life into a struggling music industry?
Deschanel's "She & Him" project with indie singer/songwriter M. Ward was released back in March, and the much-hyped debut from Johansson hit digital and online outlets last week. Out of the gate, "She & Him" exactly doubled the first-week sales of Johansson's "Anywhere I Lay My Head," her love letter to indie eccentric Tom Waits.
Johansson's album came with a bit more star power -- David Bowie guests, and it was produced by TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek -- and it earned a heavy online marketing push from Warner Bros. imprint Rhino. But audiences haven't yet seemed to have taken to Johansson's deadpan delivery and the set's atmospheric swirl. "Anywhere I Lay My Head" sold 5,100 copies in its debut week.
Meanwhile, "She & Him" took a more traditional approach, and scored better results, all while releasing the album with indie label Merge Records. The act's debut, "Volume One," sold 10,200 copies when it premiered back in March. To be fair, it's a more accessible record, driven by Deschanel's understated, soulful pop approach.
As a side note, Thursday night brings the premiere of Deschanel film "The Go-Getter," which will screen at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The film actually brought Deschanel together with M. Ward, and the pair recorded a cover of Richard and Linda Thompson's "When I Get to the Border" for the its soundtrack.
I'll be in attendance and will share some thoughts as soon as I can, but in the meantime, The Playlist has posted an interview with the film's director, Martin Hynes. The director talks about introducing the two in the post: “I had no idea they would hit it off the way they did,” Hynes is quoted by Playlist. “I remember Zooey turning to Matt and saying, ‘Hey, do you know the chords to ['50s classic] “Mr. Sandman’? And he did."
Watch a trailer below:
Johansson photo courtesy Rhino Records, Deschanel photo courtesy Merge Records
Scarlett Johansson's debut "Anywhere I Lay My Head" was officially released today via streaming service Imeem. While not due in stores until next Tuesday (May 20), those with Imeem accounts can hear the full album now. Those without can make do with 30-second excerpts, but are also invited to embed the album like so:
While far from a new move, Johansson's label (Warner-owned imprint Atco/Rhino Records) certainly deserves credit for allowing fans a peek into Johannsson's highly anticipated debut a week early, especially considering the label is allowing fans to share the content. This, of course, comes after having some earlier leaked songs taken down from Imeem.
Aside from the curiosity factor that comes with an actor turned musician, Johansson's album, largely a low-key mix of dreamy, studio atmospherics, is drawing attention for tackling the songs of cult hero Tom Waits, and working with a host of acclaimed artists like David Bowie and TV on the Radio producer Dave Sitek. A video for Johansson's "Falling Down," the song Bowie guests on, has already been released.
Early reactions have been mixed. Wired's Listening Post compared Johansson to the Cocteau Twins, and the Playlist was a bit more critical. In a Sunday essay, my colleague Ann Powers critiqued the album. Here's a brief excerpt from her review:
"Anywhere I Lay My Head" is, in fact, not a great success. But its ambitions are fairly huge. In fact, it's really three albums: an excellent Waits compilation that plunges deep into the soil of his catalog; a re-imagining of the Waits sound by Sitek, who delights at the chance to experiment with adding new elements to music that's clearly influenced his own work; and Johansson's debut. Had a band name graced the project instead of Johansson's, it might seem like a greater success; her voice is best understood as an element in Sitek's wide-ranging constructions, not a central force.
...And it plays out like a DVD outtake of Scarlett behind the scenes.
While it's cute to see Johansson become Hollywood-ready by having her forearm tattoo painted over, it's a surprisingly direct video for "Falling Down," a song focused so heavily on muddled-up production, courtesy of TV On the Radio's Dave Sitek.
Widely distributed by Yahoo first thing Tuesday morning, the clip likely won't change anyone's mind on the song. While the slow-and-heavy production begs for headphone listening, Johansson takes a rather direct and uniform approach to the vocals in the cut, which seem to needlessly ground the atmospherics.
Ultimately, it's the background instrumentation -- a plucky banjo here, or a smattering of xylophone-like chimes over there -- that cuts through the swirl, and pulls the emphasis away from the star vocalist.
"Falling Down" is the first single from Johansson's May 20 album -- largely composed of of Tom Waits covers -- "Anywhere I Lay My Head."
Last week, a pair of tunes from Scarlett Johansson's debut, "Anywhere I Lay My Head," found their way onto the Web.
With the acclaimed actress tackling the songs of Tom Waits, singing with David Bowie, and working with a host of underground rock luminaries (TV On the Radio's Dave Sitek and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Nick Zinner, among others), there was, understandably, quite a bit of interest in the songs.
But within hours of the title track and "I Don't Wanna Grow Up" leaking, the songs were removed from any blog that hosted them.
Yet with the May 20 release of her album, due on Warner Bros.-owned label Atco/Rhino, it seemed like high time to get the music out to the public.
The sudden Web removal of the tracks seemed a bit puzzling. Warner Bros., after all, was the first major label to strike a licensing agreement with streaming site Imeem, and there is a seeming newfound attitude among labels to get music into the hands of fans as quickly as possible (see Gnarls Barkley, theRaconteurs).
When contacted, a label rep for Johansson did not comment on why the two tracks were asked to be taken down, but did note that a new and different Johansson song would be made available the following week. And voila, it has, as "Falling Down" featuring David Bowie has landed as an exclusive on AOL's Spinner site.
Consider it proof that even in 2008, the Web can't totally derail a major label marketing campaign.
But the Web can certainly make one even more frustrating for all parties. Check the VH1 site for Madonna's "Hard Candy," which at one point offered brief snippets of every song on the album. Perhaps everyone soon came to their senses and realized that a full track or two would be a better tactic. I'm betting more fans than not are comfortable making their purchase judgments based on 30-second clips available on iTunes or Amazon, so why let them make that decision two weeks before the April 29 release?
As for Scarlett's "Falling Down," expect a more link-friendly version of the song to be available in the next day or two. It's an icier first single than expected, which Johansson offering a surprisingly still delivery around a deliberately slow swirl of spacey effects and heavily layered instrumentation.
The debut album from Scarlett Johansson, "Anywhere I Lay My Head," has been given an official track list, which was unveiled at a press event in New York last night. As noted earlier, the album sees the actress-turned-singer tackling 10 Tom Waits songs (and one original, "Song for Jo"), and now has a guest spot from David Bowie, according to Billboard.com, which covered the event.
To try to get a sense of how Waits might sound once given the Scarlett-treatment, here's a clip from "Summertime," as well as a clip of one of the Waits songs she covers, "Green Grass." She gives the George Gershwin-composed "Summertime" a rather graceful approach, and colors her vocals with just a hint of femme fatale slyness.
But will such grace destroy the Waits songs?
Is their very appeal dependent upon Waits' crazy-guy-in-the-woods vocals, much like the Pogues lose their zest without Shane MacGowan's drunk-guy-in-the-pub approach? Since many of the songs Johansson covers are rather sparse in their original form, there is plenty room for interpretation, and I'm actually betting on the actress to hold her own with the Waits catalog.
"Summertime:"
"Green Grass:"
And the track list for "Anywhere I Lay My Head:"
1. "Fawn" 2. "Town With No Cheer" 3. "Falling Down" 4. "Anywhere I Lay My Head" 5. "Fannin' Street" 6. "Song for Jo" 7. "Green Grass" 8. "I Wish I Was in New Orleans" 9. "I Don't Want To Grow Up" 10. "No One Knows I'm Gone" 11. "Who Are You?"
