I’m starting with the Okkervil River clips from Pitchfork.tv, a fairly impressive video site launched by pitchforkmedia.com.
But I’m more concerned with that Scarlett Johannson song.
I had high hopes for Johannson’s Tom Waits cover album, “Anywhere I Lay My Head.” Coming out a couple months after Zooey Deschanel’s excellent collaboration with M. Ward, She &Him, it seemed like it just might work.
It doesn’t. It really doesn’t. The girls voice just doesn’t sell the songs. I don’t mean they’re not as good as Waits himself — no one can really match his level of grizzled vocal excellence. But her warbling doesn’t take the songs in a good direction. It’s a trainwreck, set to a very slow tempo.
OK, like I said, let’s start with the good stuff.
Okkervil River — “Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe” and “Okkervil River Song” — Live
Pitchfork.TV posted this (I’m guessing) exclusive mini-concert by one of my favorite bands, Okkervil River. The group plays a slowed-and-stripped down version of “Our Life Is Not a Movie Or Maybe” that, maybe because they’re playing in such massive setting, sounds pretty damn majestic. And it only gets better from there.
Scarlett Johannson — “Falling Down” — Video
Ever wonder what failure sounds like? It sounds like an actress covering Tom Waits songs. See?:
Whew. That was bad. OK. Let’s rinse that out of our ears with some poppy harmonics courtesy of I’m From Barcelona. (The song’s called “The Painter.” And the group’s from Sweden, just FYI.)
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