Waits too much for Johansson?

Scarlett Johansson’s decision to give us an album of Tom Waits covers really did surprise me. Many have said it’s rubbish (see Amazon for some gloriously mixed reviews). Some waffle on about how much of an amazing actor she is and that’s what she should stick to, but admittedly, she isn’t that much of a fantastic actor and she’s certainly not a fantastic vocalist either. How could she fail though covering one of the greatest artists of all time, with a team of musicians who have all been exceptional in their field. It would have been impossible for her to release this under a pseudonym, the media would still have caught on, which sort of brings me to “was there a point to this album?”

I guess musicians and actors are both filed under entertainment in the Yellow Pages, but then we get the art debate. What makes an artist an artist? Madonna constantly gets some of the best known producers to help her make her records, as with Kylie. This is how pop music sometimes works. But can we call popular music art? Maybe that’s another argument altogether but this works on the same principle. She has a great team of musicians behind her, all with some pretty decent street cred, but I don’t really see what any of them have gained from making this album. Does SJ suddenly become indie cool? Not really. Does Dave from TV on the Radio suddenly become ultra-famous? Again, not really. David Bowie? Why? Do we get to hear a fabulously great album? Not particularly! There are some good tracks on here, don’t get me wrong, but inevitably anyone could have gotten behind the microphone, slap a bag of reverb in there and sounded as good as this. 

So… what was the point? Was SJ a singer before she became a snot-nosed actress? I just can’t get my head round it. If I close my eyes and imagine my mates mum singing it, the album works a lot better for me (sorry Edd). I still prefer Tom Waits, I still think Scarlett is a bit of a twat even though I’ve never met her, and I personally don’t think there’s anything exceptional in the 45 minutes it takes to get through this album.

Oh well – wonder who she’ll cover next! Meatloaf anyone?