Personnel: Scarlett Johansson (vocals); Pete Yorn (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, banjo, piano, tambourine); Robert Francis (electric guitar, slide guitar, pedal steel guitar, banjo); Max Goldblatt, Max Goldblatt (banjo, bass synthesizer, background vocals); Amir Yaghmai (strings, synthesizer); Sunny D. Levine (bass synthesizer, programming).
Audio Mixer: Sunny D. Levine.
Photographers: Max Goldblatt; James "Big Jim" Wright ; Jim Wright .
Pete Yorn recorded BREAK UPin 2006 on the heels of one, but it sat on the shelf until 2009, appearing just a matter of months after BACK & FORTH, and a year after his duet partner, Scarlett Johannson, cast as Brigitte Bardot to Yorn's Serge Gainsbourg, made an awkwardly arty splash with a Tom Waits covers album, but the album that really casts a shadow over this is VOL. 1, the 2008 record by She & Him, the teaming of M. Ward and indie actress Zooey Deschanel. Yorn and Johannson cut their album long before She & Him, but surfacing in its wake, they can't help but seem a bit like the polished, polite answer to the twee, precious charms of Zooey & M. Ward. BREAK UP does trump VOL. 1 conceptually, chronicling the dissolution of a romance as a series of duets, and Scarlett is a more-than-worthy foil to Yorn.
Professional Reviews
Entertainment Weekly (p.65) - "Johansson's throaty vocals fit BREAK UP's intimate vibe better than they did on her overly ambitious Tom Waits-covers album." -- Grade: B-
Alternative Press (p.115) - 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[Johansson] sounds more in her element on this one, starting off strong with the bittersweet bounce of 'Relator.'"
Billboard (p.28) - "Sunny Levine's production keeps the album ticking, with clean acoustic riffs and piano keys only enhancing both vocal performances."
Paste (magazine) (p.54) - "[T]he eight songs Yorn has written for this album are among his best -- the kind of thoughtful, catchy heartache pop at which he excels."
