meandthestereo

Artist: She & Him
Album: Volume 1
Label: Merge
Release Date: March 18, 2008
Decision: 3/5 A Mediocre Minute
Favorite Tunes: “Sentimental Heart”, “Change is Hard”, “Untitled”

1. The Background

Zooey Deschanel, the popular actress from such movies as Elf, Eulogy and Winter Passing, has already proved that she has a voice. Mr. M. Ward, popular musician and supporter of shortening first names to single letters, has already proven his ability to make popular tunes. These two artists get together and decide to make an album. The world waits…and listens…

2. The Substance

First of all, this album has great sound quality, which is of no surprise since these two artists have essentially unlimited resources when it comes to recording. There are a couple of songs where Mr. Ward and Ms. Deschanel even went lo-fi and that’s a welcome sound that adds a little warmth to such high quality songs. Ms. Deschanel’s vocals are crisp and clear and are certainly the center of every track. This album has 13 songs, with one untitled tune at the end (a cover of “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”) and is the perfect length for an album. There are two covers that I know of on this album, one being the above reference and a cover of Smoky Robinson’s “You Really Got a Hold on Me”. The songs deal with love and romance and are mostly energetic, minimalistic and well organized.

3. The Decision

3/5 A Mediocre Minute. I wanted to LOVE this album. I wanted it to rock me so hard I’d have to listen to other albums constantly to keep these songs out of my head. I was looking forward to Zooey Deschanel’s strong and soulful voice singing me songs of broken heartedness and pain. I wanted to be dragged back to a time where soul and rhythm & blues were powerful. Perhaps that was my mistake, though. I expected something and didn’t get it. I realized that the first time I listened to the whole album. I wanted something Ms. Deschanel and Mr. Ward didn’t want to give. Ms. Deschanel wanted to sing love songs with simple lyrics and melodies and I realized that was fine. It’s still not that great, though. I adore the first song. It’s Zooey’s cute voice with a cute melody and a nice ending. The rest of the songs are just a bit mediocre, though, and other than the almost acapella Untitled, her voice doesn’t hit that soul power that she has in her. Mr. Ward’s music arrangements are simple and far from being fascinating or ground breaking. And his added whispery, shaky vocals DO NOT jive with the strong, smooth flow of Ms. Deschanel’s voice. The songs where he does add backup would have done well without him. This album is worth a listen, but you won’t be missing anything spectacular if you happen to let it pass by. Hopefully all the good songs have been reserved for “Volume 2″.