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
Back & Fourth, 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' cover 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
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. If anything, her hushed, husky voice -- showcased better here than on her own debut -- is a greater presence than his self-pity. In this tasteful context, it's easy to hear why he pines after her but not so clear what she ever saw in him in the first place.