Scarlett Sing Waits: First Listen

I posted about Anywhere I Lay My Head, Scarlett Johansson's forthcoming album of Tom Waits covers a while back. Now there's an official website with clips from all of the songs, Spinner has posted an 'exclusive' of her version of Falling Down and I've also found an MP3 of the title track (available below).

Having heard her rendition of Summertime I'd expected something predictably jazzy. Instead, with producer David Sitek (TV on the Radio), she's taken the surprising decision to do a sort of electro-pop number on all of the songs. A pretty odd move in my opinion and not one I'm sure works. What do you reckon?

Also, last time I wrote about this I promised to post some of my favourite Tom Waits covers. Well, you can look forward to those some time next week I promise.

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MP3: Scarlett Johansson - Anywhere I Lay My Head

MP3: Tom Waits -Falling Down

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Scarlett Sings Waits

On Tuesday Scarlett Johansson let journalists in New York hear her long-awaited debut album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, which mainly consists of Tom Waits covers. A Hollywood actress recording a Waits tribute was always going to be intriguing, but the project has taken another strange turn. According to Billboard, David Bowie sings on two tracks.

When I read about this project a year or so ago I wondered which songs Scarlett would pick and now I've seen the final tracklist I'm pretty impressed.

• Fawn
  
• Town With No Cheer
  
• Falling Down
  
• Anywhere I Lay My Head
  
• Fannin' Street
  
• Song for Jo (the only original, non-TW song)
  
• Green Grass
  
• I Wish I Was in New Orleans
  
• I Don't Want To Grow Up
  
• No One Knows I'm Gone
  
• Who Are You?
  

Who Are You? and Falling Down are two of my favourite Waits songs and Town With No Cheer is a melancholy slice of Swordfishtrombones. We'll find out how Scarlett delivers her version when the album's released in May. I've only heard her sing once before - a version of Summertime from an album called Unexpected Dreams: Songs From The Stars. If you want to hear Jeremy Irons or Ewan McGregor you'll have to buy the album, but you can download Scarlett's effort below.

Tom Waits covers are nothing new. My hatred of Rod Stewart has a lot to do with his horrible version of Downtown Train. Leave a comment if you'd like me to post MP3 of some my favourite Waits covers. And also share your thoughts on whether you think Johansson's album will be any good. It can't be any worse than Rod.

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MP3: Summertime - Scarlett Johansson
MP3: Who Are You? - Tom Waits
MP3: Falling Down - Tom Waits