AMG Review of Break Up

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

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.