Review: She & Him – Volume Two
She & Him, a musical collaboration between actress Zooey Deschanel and singer-songwriter M. Ward, has finally released one of the most highly anticipated sophmore albums of the year. Since the 2008 release of Volume One the duo has garnered buzz, earning universal acclaim and being named one of the the year’s best albums by the Village Voice’s “Pazz and Jop” poll. Fans of the group have been eagerly waiting for the latest record, Volume Two, to see if it meets the expectations set forth by their debut.
She & Him’s music is an unusual mix of Death Cab For Cutie-esque indie pop and mimicry of classic country crooners such as Patsy Cline. Volume One features songs such as “Sentimental Heart” and the albums breakout single “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” that shows off Zooey’s emotional, heartfelt vocal stylings and M. Ward’s California pop-influenced guitar work.
Volume Two’s opening track, “Thieves”, invokes classic 70s radio pop with a simple rhythm and melody playing under Deschanel’s soulful crooning. While it doesn’t match the balefulness of Volume One’s tearjerker opener “Sentimental Heart”, it shows listeners that She & Him is not content with simply repeating the same formula from before. Oddly enough the album’s first single, “In The Sun,” opens on the same notes as Volume One’s “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?”, but breaks down into a jangle pop ballad after the opening. Rather than focusing on the style generally produced by modern indie pop groups, She & Him prove content to tinker sonically with a sound more similar to The Beach Boys than The Shins. The album continues on in the same fashion, creating a sonic field of gentle pop perfect for a lazy day with a cup of coffee and a book.
While Volume Two sets off on a new aural tradition, thematically it blazes no new trail from Volume One. While focusing on love of the lost and unrequited variety seems a perfect fit for Deschanel’s baleful vocal stylings, considering the things that have been going on in her life since Volume One (not only releasing one of the best albums of 2008 but having a hit film career and marrying Death Cab For Cutie frontman Ben Gibbard) it would be nice to see her music writing branch out to happier subject matter.
All in all, Volume Two proves that while it isn’t necessary for a band to reinvent the wheel on every record, it is nice to hear musicians experiment with something new, even if that “something new” invokes the classic sounds of a bygone era.
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Daniel Pittman lives in Florida and has lots of ideas about the Batman franchise. Follow him on Twitter!Email this Author | All posts by Daniel Pittman
