Countdown to Pete Yorn’s ArrangingTime :: Day 8 of 11

Can you believe it’s Day 8 already? We are only three days away from ArrangingTime – this Friday! We’ve made our way through four of Pete’s solo albums, taken a listen to some of his cover songs, songs with names in them, and Summertime tunes. So, maybe it’s time to take a look at one of the collaborations Pete has done, what do you say?

Let’s start with Break Up, the lush and lyrical album he made with Scarlett Johansson, released in 2009, and spawned supposedly from a dream that Pete once had.

As a reminder, if you haven’t pre-ordered the album yet, if you click here and are among the next 200 VINYL orders your album will be signed. There’s still time! Also, though, you can order the album as a digital download, or as a CD – click here, as well as other fun merchandise (tee shirts, hats, past albums) – click here.

And if you have Apple Music, you can screen the entire album early – right now.

Pete’s tour starts today, in Berlin, Germany, at Gruener Salon. I cannot recommend enough seeing Pete live, if you can. The current tour dates can be seen here. I’ll be at the San Francisco one, and hopefully more later in the year.

Break Up (2009)

Some thoughts:

Break-up mix tapes/CD’s/playlists are a must have when trying to mend a broken heart. We all need them, those songs that make us cry in just the right way, curl up beside us in our pain and misery, and somehow help us to bounce back and (hopefully) love again. Break Up, Pete’s duet album with Scarlett Johansson, is like one of those mixes — and then some.

Much like the collaboration between Brigitte Bardot and Serge Gainsbourg (see Bonnie and Clyde), Scarlett and Pete’s duets bring a sonic magic to the Break Up album, with layered vocals and dreamy, emotional melodies.

My first listen to this album felt like a crash course in the ups and downs, and starts and finishes of a relationship. I feel like each song tells part of the story, but not all of it. Love without the happy ending, because maybe the happy is in the middle? Or perhaps the happy is when love has gone on and got over itself, floating off somewhere in the “Cosmos.”

Keep Art Alive :: Photo by Jim Wright

My Top 5:

5. Blackie’s Dead

“I’m in love with a girl who sees what you are,
what you are.”

4. Relator 

“When I met you,
I didn’t know what to do.
I was tired,
I was hungry,
I fight.
Now I’m away,
I write home everyday,
and I see you on the TV at night.”

3. I Don’t Know What to Do

“Every time I am reminded,
of the good thing that we use to know,
and I know you’re not expecting,
to go on second guessing –
but I think it’s for the best.”

2. I am the Cosmos

“Every night I tell myself,
I am the cosmos,
I am the wind –
but that don’t get you back again.”

1. Someday

“And all the things are different in my life,
The words you say,
I hear them on the side.
Wishes left unanswered,
no songs to gravitate,
the feeling will not survive.”