Scarlett Johansson

Annie Zaleski

Thursday, May 22, 2008 | 6:45 p.m.

Until now, Scarlett Johansson’s karaoke rendition of the Pretenders’ “Brass in Pocket” in the film Lost in Translation was the 23-year-old’s most famous vocal performance. Stilted and thin-sounding where Chrissie Hynde’s version was brazen and assured, Johansson’s delivery nevertheless possessed quirky, distinctive charms.

The actress brings the same sense of ownership to her debut album, Anywhere I Lay My Head, which is a collection of 10 Tom Waits covers and one original song. But unlike her film persona, Johansson and her collaborators (including TV on the Radio producer David Andrew Sitek, Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner and David Bowie) play to her strengths.

Head feels like a hazy nightmare, or a fairy-tale haunted forest; towering guitar drones and hypnotic, heartbeat rhythms create undulating ambient space that drifts between feeling ethereal and macabre. Either way, it’s a perfect match for Johansson’s lost-little-girl singing. In fact, her limited, flat-affect vocal range brings out the darkest aspects of Waits’ songs.

The dirge-like near-monotone she employs on the Magnetic Fields-meets-Blondie gem “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” and her Sinead O’Connor-like emoting on the title track are both superb. “I Wish I Was In New Orleans”—whose only accompaniment is a reverb-laden music box—is almost unbearably mournful, while Bowie’s ghostly backing echoes on the daybreak-drone, Velvet Underground-aping “Fannin Street” neatly match her manicured sorrow. The lone original, “Song for Jo,” even resembles a solid TV on the Radio song—especially since Tunde Adebimpe contributes vocals and loops.

Many likely won’t give Head a chance, simply because it’s by an actress attempting to cross over into music. And with the spotty track record of thespians trying to become pop stars—only 30 Seconds to Mars’ Jared Leto has found any real success—it’s not surprising. But anyone dismissing Head out of hand is missing out; it’s a fantastic, cohesive mood piece with nary a dud song.