Pete Yorn

From the second he landed a soundtrack/score gig for the Farrelly Brothers film Me, Myself & Irene (see: the clanging chords of "Strange Condition," the spare acoustic soundscapes of "Just Another"), Pete Yorn's proven to be much more than a simple guitar-strumming singer-songwriter. For starters, there's his gate-crashing debut, Musicforthemorningafter, which stunned critics and a growing cult following with the steady, boot-scuffing rhythms of "Life On a Chain," the spacious, spine-tingling keys of "Lose You," and the rowdy roadhouse riffs of "For Nancy ('Cos It Already Is)." And as you'll hear in our Next Steps, he's barely taken a breather in the years since.

Unlike his previous albums, Back & Fourth is the first Pete Yorn platter to bring a full backing band into the fold, not to mention producer/Monsters of Folk member Mike Mogis. The result? Heartland hooks chased with hazy California dreams, including the speaker-panning melodies of "Paradise Cove" and the woozy string arrangements of "Four Years." Both of which expand Yorn's ever-evolving singer-songwriter sound like the rest of his records, from the doe-eyed duets of Break Up to the Live from New Jersey collection, which reveals just what a spotlight-stealing showman Yorn is. He's also completely unpredictable, as proven by his choice of cover songs in our Deep Cuts.

As if the speaker-pelting synth showers of "Use Me" — Pete Yorn's dance-floor-detonating Kinky collab — weren't surprising enough, the New Jersey native had to go and cover Nick Cave's Paradise Lost-quoting "Red Right Hand." On the slightly less sinister side of things, Yorn's delivered a roots-rock rendition of the Temptations' classic "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)," rediscovered the dusty Mississippi blues of Junior Kimbrough's "I Feel Good Again," and paid a proper tribute to the Boss himself with an extended version of "New York City Serenade."

When Pete Yorn announced Break Up — a Scarlett Johansson collaboration that channels the immortal duets of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot — many listeners dropped their jaws at the very thought. Yorn's been a high concept singer-songwriter from the start, though, beginning with his Musicforthemorningafter/Day I Forgot/Nightcrawler trilogy — diary-entry discs that take us through an average day while plowing through road-tripping rock tunes ("Come Back Home," "Crystal Village," "Burrito") and tenderized ballads ("June," "Broken Bottle," "Turn of the Century"). And just when you think you've got Yorn figured out, he sheds the synths of a New Order classic ("Bizarre Love Triangle"), plops behind a piano for an pelvis-shaking Elvis single ("Suspicious Minds"), and taps the loose-limbed drumming of Dave Grohl on "For Us."