'08
For some reason Scarlett Johansson decided to do an album of Tom Waits covers despite the fact that she can’t sing. Her voice has no range and isn’t particularly interesting, and with all the benefits of modern technology there was only so much they could do to make her sound even passable. It’s kind of appropriate that she picked Tom Waits since she has a deep monotone voice that could pass for a man’s, and I’m sorry to say that because I really like Johansson.
Zooey Deschanel just put out a folksy sparse-sounding album that’s incredibly good, and she’s definitely an actress who is capable of crossing over into music. Johansson is a bigger star with much less musical ability, and she didn’t need to do this. You understand when someone has a passion for singing, but one of her handlers or someone at the music company should have told her “No.”
Here’s the video. Johansson is shown riding in a car, getting makeup applied, sitting for a photo shoot, and kissing Salmon Rushdie.
A lot of you said this song sounded ok when it was first released online last week. I’m in Europe and the clip was only available for US visitors so I had no idea. Now I know I don’t like it. Maybe I just don’t get it, but I can’t help but thinking there’s not much to get.
Written by Celebitchy
Posted in Music, Scarlett Johansson
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31 Responses to “Scarlett Johannson’s first video can’t make up for her terrible music”
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well… she is still an amazing QUALITY actress to me! and am not changing my mind because of her bad music!!!lol
which at least is not pretencious at all…its just like something she have always wanted to do, despite her terrible voice!lolShe probably did it for herself and not in a desperate act for publicity or whatever!!!!
As long as she had fun with it, good for her!
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She needs to release another type of video – a BJ video!
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I made it about 10 seconds into this video before I closed the browser window. Yuk.
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Wow…that’s just so bad.
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that was absolutely horrendous!! and she is so obviously in love with herself and thinks the rest of the world is just as in love as she is… who really wants to watch a whole video of her gettting makeup and hair done?? oh well, i just had to watch out of morbid curiosity.
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Obviously someone thought that the album was worth making. Ya know, cause it was made. I don’t know if ya’ll are familiar with Tom Waits but alot of his music is kinda hard to listen to.
I don’t think Scarlett is a great singer but she is way better than alot of crap I hear refered to as music
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I had the same problem as CB as I live in Europe too. Just heard the song… finally.
And I am disappointed. It’s worse than I thought. The music part itself isn’t that bad. It has the Mùm vibe here and there. But the vocals are terrible (I would never even guess that it is Scarlett Johanson singing but that’s not the main reason for me disliking it).
The video itself is almost as boring as the song. What else is there to say?
It certainly isn’t half as bad as most the music that gets send down the radio waves these days but it simply leaves me emotionless, unmoved. Bored, basically.
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Scarlett, honey… No.
And that header picture – what an indie cliché.
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i really think she isn’t that great of an actress though it seems she thinks she is. her acting is very flat. she tries to hard. but this singing – how awful! i can’t believe someone told her this was a good idea. people say yes to celebrities way too much.
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who cares.. shes hot as hell
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that is 1 turd of a song
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It was interesting. It is not my kind of music, but I can see that there are those who can relate to the almost flat tone of the presentation. The video showed a girl playing at dress up which is part of an actresses job-it goes along with the song’s presentation of feeling one thing and presenting another. I would not buy the CD, but I did enjoy this experience as a one time event.
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@Bodhi – I have heard a lot of Tom Waits and he has a unique style that I consider pretty easy to listen to compared to this. It’s throaty and dark but has a distinct sound. You may need to be in the mood for Waits’ music, but you know what you’re getting and his music is a knockout. I’m interested to hear the rest of Scarlett’s album. Waits has a strong music personality, Scarlett’s is just blah from what I’ve heard. Maybe the rest of the album is better. There’s music that I don’t particularly love, but find incredibly good, and Waits falls in that category.
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Well said. I’d like to hear the rest of it too. It is pretty hard to form an opinion based on just one song.
BTW how awesome was it that Tom was the pirate in Shrek 2?
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The experiment of bored, spoiled and over-indulged child. I’ve heard much worse from others. I’d still bang that till next July.
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well i actually really liked the song. the video was kind of bland, but i dig tom waits and from other performances i’ve heard/seen of scarlett, she actually has a decent voice. i think her tone etc here is a stylistic choice due to the material.
to each his own. at least it’s better than paris.
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I like it.
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I don’t get the rushdie part at all. Aside from that, if I were that beautiful I would probably just make a music video to look at myself too. haha.
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Meh.
The song is ok, but the video almost put me to sleep! B.O.R.I.N.G.
Like someone else said, above, scarlett must think we all love to look at her as much as she does.
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She is kissing a fish? lol… It is “Salman” Rushdie… He’s gross. This is just the type of pretentious video needed for a pretentious album. What screams pretentiousness more than making out with frickin’ Salman “kill the blasphemer” Rushdie in a music vid?
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Yowza. If she wants to make music, her voice is more suitable for funky spoken word or maybe even punk. She shouldn’t be trying anything with a melody. I love her, so I’m being nice. Screw it, she sucks. Her voice is sexy and beautiful, but not for singing.
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I love it. If she WEREN’T Scarlett Johansson, everyone else would love it too.
Her vocals may be flawed, but this music is for people who appreciate artists like Tom Waits, and it’s beautiful. The video is paced well and beautifully shot, though the content lacks meaning.
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I didn’t think it was too bad- it had a kind of Nico vibe to it. I’ve a feeling it’ll be a grower.
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Mairead, spot on! When I listened to it first, it immediately reminded me of Femme Fatale, especially at the beginning. I love the sort of broken rawness in her voice. I really really like this and agree with Melissa that if people heard it without knowing who it was, they might have a different opinion.
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Poor Tom Waits…
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Thought I’d come back and listen to it again. It really IS starting to grow on me.
*worship*
And am I right in thinking that the legend that is David Bowie is singing on it too?
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She sounds like another crappy contestant on American Idol, doing a terrible cover of an amazingly accomplished artist who is nearly impossible to cover respectfully.
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That was a fuckin’ shocker. Beyond bad!
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WOW, That’s just plain aweful!
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this is a case of a song that coule have been enhanced by the video… but instead its a lackluster one. So it doesn’t help in the slightest… boring.
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Good god, she sucks. As someone who tried to get a recording career going when I was younger, this type of situation is sickening. SHe’s totally cashing in on her actress fame to put out a piece of crap album. Boo.
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