A musical shrug

There are a number of questions one has while listening through Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson’s collaborative EP Apart, primarily: Why does this exist? Why would two successful and busy people create a sequel EP to a collaborative album nobody cared about when it came out almost ten years ago? Why does this collaboration occur in the first place? Who is this even for? These might seem like exaggerated queries, but listening through the EP’s five angst-ridden yet generic love songs, one wonders why Yorn would bother lending his indie music cred to an already critically-acclaimed actress and the leading woman of the blockbuster superhero franchise, just so she can continue a never-blossomed music career.

None of these questions are to the discredit of the music itself, which at its best moments harkens back to Yorn’s alt-rock influences with The Smiths and R.E.M., such as in the bombastic bass riff of “Bad Dreams” or the acoustic dreaminess of “Cigarillo,” while still bringing in a dream-pop sensibility, likely inspired by Johansson’s presence. Johansson has a beautiful, alluring singing voice that will make all the people who wanted her to win an Oscar for Her very happy, while still not taking on much of a lead role in any of the songs for which she splits credit.

In an interview with Forbes, the duo revealed that Johansson recorded all of her vocals for the EP in a single afternoon, and it shows, as the actress’ voice is essentially pared down into another instrument for Yorn to pull out of his toolbox as he sees fit. The most obvious lack of Johansson’s presence is “Movies,” where her role is to sing the two-line refrain twice over Yorn’s ambient wooziness, the result being the best track on the EP and its most successful foray into dream-poppy loveliness. The tracks with Johansson’s strongest presence, the opening “Iguana Bird” and the closing “Tomorrow – Remix,” turn out to be the most mediocre kind of pop; the indulgent musical duets that initially formed the crux of Yorn and Johansson’s musical partnership become the least interesting thing about their latest record.

While Johansson’s singing is at its worst extraneous, the record’s major debilitating flaw is its penchant for drum machine-generated beats for each of the tracks, really applying the basic kitschy pop sound to “dream-pop.” The best tracks on the EP use Yorn’s lazy excuse for a backbeat to minimal effect where it becomes almost unnoticeable, while its worst tracks allow it to become the most grating element of the whole project.

These are where those initial questions come back in to play. Why does this record exist? It’s hard to imagine a movie star who’s very first studio album was composed almost entirely of Tom Waits covers really cares much about her singing career, or whether anyone even listens to the records she puts out. In that aforementioned Forbes interview, the duo also explained that they just missed working and spending time together, so it’s nice that they got that afternoon?

So, who is this record for? Johansson’s fans who like dreamy indie pop that barely uses her, probably. Should you care? If you’re a Pete Yorn completist, you should be happy with more material from the singer-songwriter, if you’re a Scarlett Johansson fanatic, you would’ve been happy with anything. Otherwise, it’s hard to conjure up any reason to listen, let alone care about the reunion between a movie starlet with dreams of singing and the musician who would be just fine working without her.