Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search

September 5, 2008 5:50:53 PM CDT

Learn about Newser Points »

« Back to the grid | Next story »

Scarlett's Waits Tribute: Unnecessary, But Not Bad

Posted May 14, 08 1:15 PM CDT in Arts & Living 

(Newser) – “Even the most sympathetic critics,” writes Tom Breihan for the Village Voice, have to grant that Anywhere I Lay My Head, Scarlett Johansson’s Tom Waits tribute album, “is a fundamentally ridiculous enterprise, almost stunning in its total lack of need to exist.” That said, Breihan thinks the record is actually pretty good, made stronger by the fact that it sounds absolutely nothing like Tom Waits.

Johansson tapped TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek to produce the record, and he renders Waits originals into warm, shoegazey layers of sound, of which Johansson’s voice is only a tiny part of the larger mosaic. This smartly takes the focus off of her celebrity, while honoring “the faraway mystery of the Waits originals without ever attempting to replicate their sound.”

Source Village Voice

0 comments | Print E-mail | Digg Seed this on Newsvine Add this link to Del.icio.us StumbleUpon

Related Newser Stories

  • Dion's AC/DC Tribute 'Worst Cover Ever'

    Jun 23, 08 11:59 AM CDT
    Celine Dion's rendition of AC/DC's You Shook Me All Night Long has been voted the worst cover ever, according to Total Guitar magazine. The UK mag called the duet Dion performed with Anastacia in Las Vegas 6 years ago an "offense" against music. "The No. 1 worst cover song—Celine Dion covering AC/DC—is sacrilege," said magazine editor Stephen Lawson. More »

Scarlett Johansson arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala, in New York on Monday, May 5, 2008.   (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)
Actress Scarlett Johansson arrives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala, in New York on Monday, May 5, 2008.   (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)
In this Oct. 15, 2007 file photo, actress Scarlett Johansson arrives at Elle magazine's 14th Annual Women in Hollywood tribute in Los Angeles.   (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, file)
Actress Scarlett Johansson listens as she meets the media during a news conference about the movie 'The Other Boleyn Girl' at the International Film Festival Berlinale in Berlin, Germany, Friday, Feb....   (AP Photo/Hermann J. Knippertz)
« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow
Our editors also recommend:

Threads (1 of 4)

Tags

celebrity  • music  • music review  • Scarlett Johansson  • Tom Waits  • cover song


Loading...

Premium Articles from HighBeam

Find more articles like this

Today's Most Popular


Other Arts & Living Stories

What is Newser?

2008 Codie Finalist

Newser gives you more news in less time. We search for the best and most important stories all over the web, read them for you, and deliver concise and sharp summaries—along with links to the full text. Newser provides a way to stay on top of an ever-expanding horizon of news and opinion—politics, sports, business, trends, technology, personalities, crimes, and controversies. Newser keeps you not just better informed, but, with our signature graphic interface and smart condensed format, more enjoyably informed.

Learn more »