Anywhere I Lay My Head (2008)

Image credit: Brea Souders

HUSH, HUSH, SWEET SCARLETT ScarJo's low monotone doesn't do the Tom Waits songbook any favors on cover album Anywhere I Lay My Head

Anywhere I Lay My Head, actress Scarlett Johansson's debut CD, is an extravagant act of camouflage: a covers album where the interesting objective of reimagining Tom Waits songs with Arcade Fire-type soundscapes plays second fiddle to disguising her expressionless voice. With her low monotone, ScarJo aims for Nico but comes off like Sinéad on sopors — never more so than on the zombielike ''I Don't Wanna Grow Up.'' In burying Johansson's vocals so deeply in the druggy ambiance, producer David Andrew Sitek (of TV on the Radio) means well but ends up obscuring Waits' great tunes. C
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