Found In Translation.
Coming into focus, back together again, great American singer/songwriter Pete Yorn thumbs the bridge of his nose between his eyes as he restlessly leans on the open window of American muscle. He pulls the sleeve of his suit jacket back to check the time on his elegant wrist watch and looks out of his passenger side window in polite impatience. And then there she is. Hollywood starlett Scarlett Johansson. Riding shotgun looking back at him like something cinematic on this long and swerving kaleidoscopic road. As if 2009 wasn't almost ten years gone next calender. Short bob rocking, singing about her "bangs growing too long" as she pulls the directions of a mascara wrote, alcohol smudged cocktail napkin out her diamond shining pocketbook purse. Her bottle green cocktail dress gleaming the same like the smashed glass on the back seat that twinkle like the stars in the back windows rearview. Carpool singing together about relationship woories and 'Bad Dreams' like it was the happiest song in the world. Air-drumming and swaying side to side in sing-along unison (with even a crazy to camera 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' driver seat looking reference). All whilst turning the car radio tuner to a whole new beat and street, the She and Him of actress Scarlett Johansson and singer Pete Yorn reunite like M. Ward and 'New Girl' Zooey Deschanel are about to too. "Thanks for breaking up with me again" Johansson tells Yorn in the albums linear notes. Seems fitting.
They "broke up" in 2009 with these friends collaborative album 'Break Up'. When 'Back and Forth' singer Yorn phone call recruited Academy actress Johansson and femme fatale throwback Scarlett to work on a new album with him. Following her 'Lost In Translation' breakout to the movie mainstream of legendary legacy making leading ladies in 2003 when she was still a teen, Scarlett really came of age before the Avenging Black Widow days of Thor like blockbuster war dominance to 'Infinity' thunder. And her 2008 album of Tom Waits covers 'Anywhere I Lay My Head' showed she could beautifully go at it on her own, before Yorn called her up for their dual nine track album. One that birthed the instantly infectious, foot-stomping classic single 'Relator' and the solo Scarlett standout cover 'I Am The Cosmos', like Pete's own 'Someday' closer on a classic album as songwriting straight-forward as the timeless over a pad and pen cover. Now back with another classic one, their E.P. sister follow up to their 'Break Up' album, 'Apart' explores the aftermath of a broken relationship. But it almost has the fond, found feeling of a Sofia Coppola 'Lost In Translation' sequel reuniting with Bill Murray for Santori times in the Park Hyatt hotel (like the 'A Murray Christmas' Netflix special), or Johansson's return to the Tokyo neons for last years amazing anime adaptation, 'Ghost In The Shell'. And relating to 'Relator', 'Bad Dreams' reawakens the toe-tapping catchy opening single number.
"Worried I lost my car keys or that I said something wrong/Worried about the mess that's in my house, that's in my heart/Worried that I'll go crazy every time that we're apart" they sing in the chrome filter of traffic and night lights reflecting off their shimmering car for a standout single that shines like it does. And if that feels like something straight out of the flicks of a film then wait until you here the dual favourite on this half-album. 'Movies' feels exactly like one with Yorn's lasting lyrics, offset by Scarlett's smoky, smouldering vocals. Now their own trademarks like they are their own Ryan Adams or Norah Jones'. The out the gate permenance of the hook, "Take me to the movies/Take me where you're going/I don't want to live without you" as smoky and seductive as Scarlett singing "La-la-la-la-la, love you" in harmony with the outstanding opener 'Iguana Bird'. There's even an as red as romance, or this E.P.'s artwork cover remix to Pete Yorn's 'Tomorrow'; off his last acclaimed album 'Arranging Time' album on this five-track today. But it's the relationship ashes and dust stubbed out on 'Cigarello' that is cinematically, open-road and heart compelling and illuminating as a plugged in car cigarette lighter under the dash as Yorn years, "Cigarello in your eyes/Choking on the good goodbyes/We dream of better days". The whole EP has this same atmospheric feeling and need of wanting for more from the tracks and the tears of two unique artists in their own right. Finally back in each others collaborative embrace for after what feels like forever, but in an instant is brought back like they never left. We hope another decade doesn't age before these two decide to be apart no longer for even more songs. One good encore deserves another...together. And 'Apart'-even in its extended play half measure in comparison to the almost decade ago 'Break Up' L.P.-shows us sometimes the greatest love stories belong to the ones we lost. But like something that never really leaves us, will always hold close...forever. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
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