She & Him: Volume One

She's a cute actress with displayed musical

talent, committing her voice to record in spite of the known

punchline-precedents. He's a studio brat with a taste for archaic American song

forms. Together, though, Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward are better matched than

their lousy grammar would imply; Deschanel's songs are mostly homages to

early-'60s girl-pop, which suits Ward's retro agenda just fine. What she lacks

in nuance and sheer wind power, she makes up for with plainspoken confidence as

she belts out all the old tropes: riding alone on a bicycle built for two,

passively-aggressively telling a lover to leave her alone, and so on. The real

focus is on the cozy vibe Ward and Deschanel build together without becoming

cloying. She multi-tracks and forms her own one-woman girl group; he piles on

mini-Spector drums and other tricks to give the songs a '60s sound to go with

the structure. A few covers flesh out their game, particularly a lazy

Hawaiian-guitar take on "I Should Have Known Better" that gives the Beatles chestnut

more space to breathe. The overall effect is an endearing, successful addition

to Ward's never-ending quest to assimilate every single populist song form of

the 20th century.