Scarlett Johansson - 'Anywhere I Lay My Head' (Atco) Released: 19/05/08

23-year-old BAFTA Award winning actress Scarlett Johansson is no stranger to music. She’s sung on ‘Lost In Translation’, performed backing vocals for The Jesus And The Mary Chain, appeared in several music videos and um… well its better than nothing. Anyway, after two years of hints, threats and promises, she’s now joined the actresses turned musician list with the release of her debut album ‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’ produced by TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek.

It’s a brave move to make, although unlikely to be a box office hit it could easily be a straight to video flop, especially when her choice of subject matter is comprised of Tom Waits covers with just one original composition. Thanks to Sitek’s premeditated production and with heavy contributions from Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) on guitar and David Bowie on backing vocals the album is executed with extreme precision and a considered and sensitive approach to Waits’ music allowing Johansson to shine.

Taken from Waits’ 2002 album Alice, the album opens with the dream cushioned instrumental ‘Fawn’. It’s a good track, but still no sign of the A-Lister’s vocal, until ‘A Town With No Cheer’. In homage to the original, it’s abstract, uninhibited and enchanting. Johansson’s onscreen allure and sexuality are preserved through an intriguingly hypnotic spoken word vocal which remains firmly in the background throughout as does Bowie’s vocals in ‘Falling Down’ and ‘Fannin Street’. The album immediately exudes a filmic feel, bursting with vivid imagery and huge expanses of sound straight out a Lynch drenched classic and highlighted through the title track and the deserted clunky Americana wilderness of ‘Green Grass’. The lonely musings of ‘I Wish I Was In New Orleans’ and ‘No One Knows I’m Gone’ again propel the albums rolling cinematic appeal which is further complimented with the parallel two-way conversation of ‘Who Are You’ and the subtle modernity of ‘I Don’t Wanna Grow Up’ both taken from 1992’s critically acclaimed album Bone Machine.

So far, it’s a surprisingly cohesive effort and not what you’d necessarily expect Johansson to produce. But what of her solitary original? It won’t make or break the album, but it might shatter any credibility she’s picked up along the way. Luckily for her, ‘A Song For Jo’ is softly acoustic, delicate, solemn, ethereal and in keeping with the rest of the album a success.

All in all, Johansson has contributed to an enthrallingly succinct album of progressive and reinvented covers that honour one of her favourite artists instead of paying lip-service to a Hollywood bombshell’s dreams of grandeur. And in case you were wondering, the big man himself is quietly pleased with the end result.