The music world is a rapidly changing industry, things rise and fall off the charts faster than ever before. Not to mention the changes in music itself, the production values on a song can be tremendous now, and how could we forget the famous auto-tune to give a unique sounding robotic vibe to the vocals of a song. With all this evolution, it is nice to have periodic standstills in time to bask in the glorious sounds that were lost in time decades prior. That is exactly the goal of the indie-folk due Matt Ward and Zooey Deschanel of the simplistically named, She & Him. Ward, known for his contributions and friendship to the man behind Bright Eyes, met Deschanel on the set of “The Go-Getter,” a film in which she was staring in and he was doing the music for. Together they discovered each other’s talents and their common love for 60’s pop music. Together they spent the following months writing and recording songs for this little She & Him side project that would soon turn into a very big She & Him side project.
In 2008 the album
Volume One was released with much speculation of how this actress/musician duo would work out, particularly since their music was not exactly up to date with what was popular. Regardless, the album went off with a bang, thus signaling for the much desired
Volume Two which was released just a few years later in early spring of 2010.
Springtime was such a perfect setting for this magnificent landscape of songs presented on
Volume Two as songs like “In The Sun” just picks up your spirits and throws you into this lush spring sprit. The songs childishly bouncy piano tune and Wards masterful guitar playing lays the flooring for Deschanel’s shining vocal performance that shows true talent in this auto-tune age. The entire album is just one uplifting song after another, so it would be difficult of the listener not to hear some similarities in each of these songs, but each one is absorbed with its own individual soul the listener will find a much more gratifying result when this record ends. The song “Home” for example sounds not much unlike “In The Sun” in terms of music, but both of the songs have their own little special element to them that makes them so enjoyable.
Deschanel wrote the lyrics to eleven out of the thirteen tracks on
Volume Two, which is a pretty impressive feat considering how wonderful the lyrics are on this album, a vast improvement over the previous album. On “Thieves” she writes, “There’s thieves among us, painting the wall/With all kinds of lies, the lies I never told at all/What’s in my pocket? You never knew/You didn’t know me well, so well as I knew you,” with a beautiful simplicity that she sings with such warming emotion that’s hard to find on the Billboard Hot 100 these days.
Sure, with She & Him you won’t find any godly guitar shredding delivered by Ward, nor will Deschanel break out in a hugely dynamic range that Jesus Christ himself couldn’t sing, what you see it what you get and every ounce of this is a laid back vibe that makes you just feel generally happy. The cover of “Ridin’ In My Car” is a summertime anthem of the ages with its carefree vocals about just driving away into the sunshine just reeks of joy. In addition, the quiet little song “Brand New Shoes” is just spewing happiness all over the place, and when you are done basking in the sun with this album blaring you will probably find yourself wanting to go blast some death metal at volume levels breaking the sound barrier. Nevertheless, the short and intimate time that this album gives is a miraculous blast to the past of much simpler days in music and a very enjoyable listen on one of those lazy Sunday afternoons.
