Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008, Atco)3 out of 5
Why is everybody hating on poor Scarlett? This album isn't nearly as bad as everyone says it is. How much of that has to do with fact that it's 9/10ths Tom Waits songs? Probably a bunch (though the lone original here, "Song for Jo," is actually a really enjoyable paean to youth). Is it that after her entirely un-charming singing in Lost in Translation and on-stage with the Jesus & Mary Chain, she has too much to prove? Probably; Zooey Deschanel, the other hip young actress with an Indie-influenced record out this year, had already kind of won us over in Elf (as everyone and their mother has mentioned at this point).
But, needless to say, it's not as bad as you've likely read elsewhere. Producer Dave Sitek made one of the wisest production choices of the year in burying Johansson's vocals in the mix (we'll see if Metallica can top that later this year with a better drum sound than St. Anger), and getting David Bowie to sing back-ups on a couple of the songs (including first single, "Falling Down") is another check in the "Win" column. The "Green Grass" here, with its spooky carnival vibe and echo-laden production makes it sound a bit like an episode of Scooby-Doo meets Lost in Translation, and "Fawn," the only track without vocals (insert sigh of relief) is a brilliantly noisy combination of the E-Street Band and a Gospel song, but "Anywhere I Lay My Head" isn't close to being as good as Bomb The Music Industry's version (off of 2006's Goodbye Cool World) and "I Don't Want to Grow Up" doesn't even rifle through the Ramones' trash, though the song is so ridiculously appropriate for them, I don't know if anyone else could ever do it justice. The aforementioned reverb-y production does kind of make the already languid songs blur together a bit, and most of the criticisms of Scarlett's voice (that she can't carry a note, that she's slightly tone-deaf, etc.) would hold up in a court of law, and as engaging listening, you could do a lot better. BUT, as vaguely familiar background music? You could to a LOT worse.
Mudcrutch - Mudcrutch (2008, Warner Bros.)
Why does everybody love this record so much? Is it because it's Tom Petty? Well...yeah. The first single, "Scare Easy," is almost as good as any of Petty's solo (or with the Heartbreakers) work, and "Oh Maria" is a country-boy rock ballad in the vein of the Allman Brothers. It's just, the rest of it isn't really as good. You can hear the age in everyone's voice (particularly those that aren't Petty, who's always kind of sounded like he's looked: skeletal and sharp), and "Crystal River," is phaser-fried 70s slowdance rock (think Nazareth in the rec hall scene in Dazed and Confused), but moreso, kind of boring, especially at 9 1/2 minutes long.
The whole record is much more country-influenced that Petty's other work (a plus), and, unlike one would guess from Petty's pale countenance, it's easy to tell this band is from Florida (by way of California). Maybe Petty's tenure as the voice of "Lucky" on King of the Hill put him back in touch with his Southern roots. But, "Six Days on the Road" is right up there with the utter ridiculousness of "East Bound and Down" as one of the all-time cheesiest songs about trucking and/or running from the law (are there any that aren't?), and "Queen of the Go-Go Girls" is a painfully awkward-sounding ode to a stripper.
This record definitely doesn't make one wonder what could have been (Mudcrutch is the band that Petty was in in high school and before he went on to form The Hearbreakers), but it's a worthy detour into a sound that's clearly influenced Petty, but that doesn't necessarily always show up in his other work.
=james
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