Scarlett Johansson hearts Tom Waits? Just one more thing I can’t fault her for…

So color me impressed, a bit excited, and perhaps slightly concerned. Scarlett Johansson’s debut EP, a collaboration with Dave Situ of “TV on the Radio” and a collection of assorted other music heavies, is a set of 10 Tom Waits covers and 1 original song. Whoa.

You can check out the samples of the tracks just below (even though the album isn’t due out until May 20th):

Pitchfork Media has posted a nice interview with Scarlett where she goes into detail on the process of picking the music, crossing over from film to other creative endeavors, and following your muse, regardless of where it takes you.

Here’s a look at the video for the first single off of the album (with David Bowie doing some backup vocal work). As a die-hard Tom Waits fan, I’ve got to say, I love that Scarlett re-interprets the song without mangling the original. It’s surprisingly good.

I’m particularly impressed that this project is something she chose to do for herself and that it ended up taking on such a life of its own. That, in a nutshell, is what creativity is all about and I’m excited to give the album a full listen when it comes out (next Tuesday).

Other links to interesting bits:

• Amazon has a 3 minute video of Scarlett and Dave explaining the project.
• Audio podcast of Scarlett and Dave discussing the project, particularly the first single, “Falling Down.”