When I originally came up with the Album À la Carte project, the focus was almost solely going to be on celebrity vanity projects. I didn’t want to do side projects as much as pithy reviews of the shitty records that people put out when no one else cares about what they’re doing. Whether it’s Shaquille O’Neal’s rap album, Macho Man Randy Savage’s groundbreaking album or any of the other pieces of garbage that the marginally famous people put out.

Scarlet Johanson has been one that fascinated me in particular. She released “Anywhere I Lay My Head,” an atrocious album full of Tom Waits covers in the late 2000s, pissing off pretty much everyone that it came across and it was the epitome of the vanity project. While publications such as “Rolling Stone” were far too willing to give the album the credit that advertisers demand people like me who actually have, y’know taste and respect for Tom Waits, thought it was weak, limp and poorly though out.

For her second album, she decided to fiver her work some level of respect among music fans, recruiting beige indie favorite Pete Yorn to add vocals and music to her work. It was a solid combination. Yorn is a talented guy and he manages to do a lot with a little. That being said, it’s nothing particularly special.

“Break Up” was the result of their combination. Coming out several years after it’s recording in 2007, the album already felt like a lark and Yorn describing the collaboration as “Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg” made the whole thing sound moefully more pretentious than intended. That being said, they did capture both the sound and the style of bouncy ’60s French pop and were able to create something unique.

I really enjoy most of “Break Up,” a;though it feels very inconsequential. It’s actively poppy, fluffy and grating at times, but unexpectedly it all sort of ends up working. I enjoy the sound of people making what they want to, even if it doesn’t feel like something that should be celebrated. The album doesn’t feel like something that has to or demands to be listened to but here, that’s not a bad thing. Where Johanson demanded attention by covering the dissonant sounds of Tom Waits, here, she doesn’t care if you watch her frolick.

Listeners are going to take what they want from “Break Up.” for some, it’s a thoughtful look at the complicated feelings that are still present as a relationship implodes. The sense of lust, loss and words left unsaid all populate the lyrics and the jangling pop compliments the bitterness well. This isn’t required listening but it is interesting, well made, comfortingly experimental music made for anyone to get into.

Pete Yorn hasn’t dramatically expanded his work sense “Break Up,” but some of the studio work that populates his collaboration with Scarlet Johanson is apparent on his self-titled 2010 album. There’s plenty of echo, smart twinkling guitar and tight vocals. I think he benefitted a lot by having a female singer to comliment his dstinct vocals, but he succeeds well enough on his own.

Like I’ve said, I enjoy “Break Up” and it’s worth a listen, even if it’s not a particularly active listen. It’s a fun tribute to a style that hasn’t been popular in a long time and the sexy playfulness of Yorn and Johanson’s style is worth listening ot for even the most cynical of romantics.