Scarlet Johansen

Wherever I Lay My Head

The signs were not good - ‘actress makes a record’ - but this album beautifully wrongfoots all expectations by being almost entirely made up of Tom Waits covers, which is not exactly going for the easy win. In tone and texture it sits somewhere between Mazzy Star and Cocteau Twins and, while not a ‘belter’ of a singer, Johansen’s vocals are breathy enough to carry it all off. Purists will wail that it lacks the grit in Waits’s voice, but ‘Fannin’ Street’, ‘Town With No Cheer’ and ‘No One Knows I’m Gone’ are proof that new cloaks can be spun from old thread. The appearance of David Bowie and Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were no doubt intended to give this a degree of credibility, but Johansen could easily have sailed this one alone.