event Pete Yorn

His hungry, heartfelt 2001 debut, Musicforthemorningafter, had some comparing singer-songwriter Pete Yorn to Bruce Springsteen, but a string of increasingly rote albums in between drew a more damning analogy: a poor man’s Ryan Adams—talented, prolific, and given to experimental curveballs, but ultimately lacking much personality. His latest, Back And Fourth, fares a little better thanks to Bright Eyes producer Mike Mogis, who adds some appropriately elegiac strings and pianos to Yorn’s yearning sound. And—if the leaked retro-soul single “Relator” is any indication—Break Up, his upcoming Brigitte Bardot/Serge Gainsbourg-inspired duet album with Scarlett Johansson, will necessitate a total re-evaluation of Yorn, an artist with many more faces yet to be revealed.

His hungry, heartfelt 2001 debut, Musicforthemorningafter, had some comparing singer-songwriter Pete Yorn to Bruce Springsteen, but a string of increasingly rote albums in between drew a more damning analogy: a poor man’s Ryan Adams—talented, prolific, and given to experimental curveballs, but ultimately lacking much personality. His latest, Back And Fourth, fares a little better thanks to Bright Eyes producer Mike Mogis, who adds some appropriately elegiac strings and pianos to Yorn’s yearning sound. And—if the leaked retro-soul single “Relator” is any indication—Break Up, his upcoming Brigitte Bardot/Serge Gainsbourg-inspired duet album with Scarlett Johansson, will necessitate a total re-evaluation of Yorn, an artist with many more faces yet to be revealed.