She and Him - Volume 2

Author

Jasmine Hughes

Published

Tuesday 30th March

If you disliked volume one of Zooey Deschanel & M. Ward’s ‘She & Him’ collaboration don’t bother picking up the second expecting any change in style. M. Ward’s subtle production once again allows Deschanel’s voice to be the focus within the 60’s country-pop sound. How you respond to this will more than likely depend on your feelings about Zooey’s slightly-weak-on-range but full-to-the-brim-with- personality voice. I find it an odd mix of both charming and irritating with my opinion swinging depending on the song. In a track such as ‘In the Sun’ the vocal weaknesses in the chorus are somewhat distracting but in ‘Me and You’ both the song and her voice maintain a general aura of loveliness – with a refrain of ‘you got to be kind to yourself’ and a nice slide guitar in the mix.

M.Ward’s rough baritone comes as a welcome respite when he chimes in for a verse on ‘Ridin’ in My Car’ and a little more Him in the She & Him dynamic would have been welcome. Tracks such as ‘Don’t Look Back’ and ‘Over it Over Again’ get the top tapping and it is hard to deny the album has an easy charm to it. Deschanel has written all but two of the songs contained in the album and peppers the lyrics with the kind of cutie-pie moxy you would expect from her. One song in particular begins with the question ‘why do I always want to sock it to you hard?’ She & Him do justice to the music they are paying homage to and though this album is not ground-breaking it is, like bows and kittens and polka-dotted dresses, sweet and enjoyable.