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List Price: $18.98 | | Label: Atco
Salesrank: 4576
Released: May 20, 2008 |
| Our Price: $6.47 |
| Used Price: $4.87 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Anywhere I Lay My Head Track Listing:
1. Fawn
2. Town with No Cheer
3. Falling Down
4. Anywhere I Lay My Head
5. Fannin Street
6. Song for Jo
7. Green Grass
8. I Wish I Was in New Orleans
9. I Don't Wanna Grow Up
10. No One Knows I'm Gone
11. Who Are You
Editorial Review:
Recorded at Dockside Studio in Louisiana’s Cajun country, Scarlett Johansson’s debut album Anywhere I Lay My Head features her distinctive vocal interpretations of ten songs by legendary singer-songwriter Tom Waits. It also introduces one original track, "Song For Jo," which she co-wrote with David Andrew Sitek (TV on the Radio), who produced the album and lent his instrumental skills throughout. The title track comes from Waits’ 1985 opus Rain Dogs, and Johansson’s set also pulls cuts from Alice, Swordfishtrombones, Big Time, Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards, Real Gone, Small Change and Bone Machine. David Bowie adds backing vocals on two tracks, "Falling Down" and "Fannin Street," and the disc also features the talents of Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner and multi-instrumentalist Sean Antanaitis from Celebration, among others.
Description of Anywhere I Lay My Head:
On an album of Tom Waits covers one should rightly expect some derelict bravado and gruff to make it a credible cover album. But when the vocals are delivered by the divine Scarlett Johansson, you’re already treading in different waters. Add music which offers deeply layered and evocative soundscapes from a deft lineup of musicians that includes members of Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, TV on the Radio, and a guest appearance by David Bowie, and you’ve got something altogether different than one would expect on a Tom Waits cover album.
Fans of the old storyteller won’t recognize some of these versions. Instead, at least on a few notable tracks, fans of bands like Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil,and Dead Can Dance will recognize derivative and signature sounds from these mainstays of the venerable bands from the 4AD music label. On this her first musical venture aware from the big screen, Scarlett approaches the art of music by re-envisioning Tom’s old songs with both purpose and pensive respect for the artist she covers.
--Lucas Hilbert
Anywhere I Lay My Head Reviews:
Craptastic 
2009-11-07 - Wow this totally sucks. Scarlett should stick to acting and leave the Tom Waits covers to Holly Cole.Temptation
She can't sing
2009-07-27 - This girl can't sing! What is with those low notes? She can't even hit them! What an embarassment. Someone was trying to get in her pants when they told her she should record. Really-my neighbors child sings better.
Exceeded all my expectations 
2009-07-27 - Not being a fan of Scarlett Johansson in movies, I didn't have any interest in listening to a debut that appeared more an ego-trip than anything else. However, knowing that she was covering Tom Waits' songs, curiosity bit me and gave it a go.
Since then, it is a must on my mp3. Probably since Portishead's Dummy, I hadn't enjoyed any album as much as this. Leave your prejudices behind and listen to it. You will enjoy it.
Listen up people
2009-06-24 - First off, I dont go putting bad reviews on music i dont have the taste for just cause i personally hate the style, the sound of the voices, etc. Obviously this is what everyone is doing.
This album is not a mainstream album. Scarlett is a mainstream actress so I guess everyone thinks she is just supposed to sing in a pretty and girlie voice. Imagine if the whole world was forced to listen to an album of the Cocteau Twins (if any of you even know who they are). Bad reviews would come flooding in. This doesnt mean theyre not good! It just means that the music is only meant for people with odd, peculiar, or refined tastes that dont like listening to top 40 crap! (forgive me)
Scarletts voice is in my opinion, beautiful. It is moody and sensual and I could listen to it for hours. The music moves and sways and is very avantgarde. This album will not please the mainstream croud, and its obviously suffering for it. If you have no place in this style of music you shouldnt be slamming it. Stick to your own genres.
The best indication of good music 
2009-06-20 - is that I keep listening to it. I've purchased a lot of music so far this year (2009), but I don't listen to any of it as much as I listen to this album. It's the perfect amalgamation of mood and hook. Perhaps it depends upon your tastes. If you think, for example, that Nico sounds terrible, then stay away from this album. If you don't like dense production or the thought of another album from a celebrity, stay away from this album.
If those things don't bother you, then listen to this album, because it is excellent. It's simultaneously lush (check the ecstatic sax climax of the instrumental opener "Fawn") and relaxed, the latter probably owing to Johansson's deep-voiced, drawling delivery, which Sitek then folds between layers of sound. He folds it "between" layers of sound, not "beneath." That's an important difference.
I don't know why this album is so harsh on some people's ears. There are proverbial "good parts" in every song. And the wit and depth of Waits' lyrics really comes through in these reinterpretations. "Falling Down," "Fannin Street," and "Anywhere I Lay My Head" are moving examples of Waits as lonesome, beat-down prophet. Generally, I like these songs better than the playful, winsome interpretations of "I Wish I Was In New Orleans" and "I Don't Want to Grow Up." But those clever interpretations help to keep the album from being too downtrodden, which means they serve as welcome palette cleansers that also possess their own charms.
If you want a full and consistent listening experience from beginning to end, then listen to this album, all of it, many times.
