Break Up

Pete Yorn recorded Break Up in 2006 on the heels of one, but it sat on the shelf until 2009, appearing just a matter of months after his Back & Fourth, and a year after his duet partner, Scarlett Johansson, released a Tom Waits covers album. The album that really casts a shadow, however, is Volume One by She & Him, the teaming of M. Ward and indie actress Zooey Deschanel. Yorn and Johansson cut their album long before She & Him, but surfacing in its wake, they can't help but seem a bit like the polished answer to the precious charms of Zooey and Ward. Break Up trumps Volume One conceptually, chronicling the dissolution of a romance with duets, and Scarlett is a worthy foil to Yorn. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi