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Mar 21, 2008, 12:30PM

ALBUM REVIEW: She & Him

Indie icon M. Ward pulls together an unlikely country album with actress Zooey Deschanel, and they do it quite well. From The Western Herald.

When Conor Oberst and his rambling collective known as Bright Eyes released the best alternative-country album of the young century with 2005's "I'm Wide Awake It's Morning," the twanged-out rock and roll style, created by Neil Young and maintained by Ryan Adams and Wilco, reached its apex. You know the sound: bittersweet echoes of gin-soaked piano keys, worn-out guitar strings, and harmonious vocals shared between shaky gentleman and soulful ladies.

The tradition is carried on with "Volume One," the debut record from the due known as She & Him. The band is a unique, somewhat unlikely collaboration between indie-rock icon M. Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel. Merge Records, the duo's label, calls the collaboration a "story of musical serendipity." Marketing angles aside, that is a pretty accurate way of describing the premise of She & Him. Although M. Ward has proven his chops over the past few years with several acclaimed albums (most notably 2006's "Post-War"), Deschanel's talent as a musician is far from established, at least in the public eye. However, you may recall her surprisingly pleasant rendition of "Baby Its Cold Outside" in the 2003 holiday film "Elf." So, at the very least, we know that she can keep up with Will Ferrell.

In the case of "Volume One," she keeps up with M. Ward pretty easily, due to the fact that he sings with her on a mere two tracks. Although he keeps things interesting with his catchy compositions (which range from quaint, down-home strings to sprawling, Brian Wilson inspired orchestration), after the first few songs you begin wondering when Ward's simple baritone might show up. The imbalance of vocals hurts the sound of the record; Deschanel's voice, which is lovely in small doses, overwhelms the whole show. Her voice is closer to June Carter than Emmylou Harris, and that deep, faux-southern alto may grow jarring after a few listens.

The album opens with "Sentimental Heart," a light piano number that escalates into unexpected beauty, complete with splashy cymbals and backing vocals straight out of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. The song is lyrically simple like most of the album - the words seem closer to tunes from Motown than Nashville. As Deschanel croons, "Piece of the puzzle and you're my missing part / Oh, what can you do with a sentimental heart?" I instinctively thought of Carole King mixed with the Shirelles - simple, yet poignant words belted out with unrivaled gumption. The Motown influence is especially apparent on "I Was Made For You," which seems especially out of place on the album. M. Ward clearly traded in his Tammy Wynette records for The Supremes when he dreamed up this vibrant little tune.

Speaking of Ward, it is his two duets with Deschanel that stand out as the finest tracks "Volume One." The first is the slow-burning "You Really Gotta Hold On Me" which begins with the duo singing back and forth over a sparse acoustic guitar. As ironic as it sounds, this song (which happens to be the truest example of alt-country on the album) is actually a cover from Smokey Robinson & The Miracles.

On Ward's other vocal track, the pedal-steel driven "I Should Have Known Better," all of the elements of She & Him finally unite in that 'serendipitous' harmony the label assured us of. "I Should Have Known Better" is the second cover song on the album - a classic Lennon/McCartney track from the Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" motion picture soundtrack. Guitarist Mike Coykendall (who also appeared on Bright Eyes' 2007 "Four Winds EP") is wonderful on that pedal-steel, shredding ever so softly beneath Deschanel and Ward's warm voices.

"Volume One" ends with a delicate rendition of the traditional "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," which closes out the record in a surprisingly humble fashion. For most of the song's minute and 39 seconds, Deschanel is accompanied solely by a thick, yet unobtrusive fog of feedback. Her voice is the driving force behind most of the record and M. Ward does the right thing by letting her take it home in style.

Will it go down as one of alt-country's finest? No, no it won't. At times, "Volume One" is a rare showcase of the melancholy and the beautiful, while at other points it sounds closer to leftover tracks from Jenny Lewis' solo album with the Watson Twins. While M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel successfully outshine the novelty surrounding their serendipitous collaboration, "Volume One" is an awkward example of folk rock at its cutest - which may or may not be a good thing. If She & Him decide to hang around for "Volume 2," hopefully they'll work out some of the kinks - and maybe M. Ward will decide to sing a few songs. Now that would be a great record.

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