She & Him

Oh, i don't even think i'm qualified enough to write about the colossal greatness that is contained within this CD. 'She & him' is Zooey Deschanel and indie singer/songwriter superstar M. Ward. I would normally never be caught dead buying something associated with something so opposite of everything i believe i stand for (M. Ward is extraordinarily talented, he is, i believe this and i respect him, however i find most of his work to be excruciatingly boring and it deeply offends my new pop sensibilities)...but...they're singing 50's and 60's pop songs!!! now you can understand why i'm so in love. instantly. You know Zooey has an awesome old-school vocal set from her singing in 'Elf', she sounds a little like Judy Garland...in that film. Here, it appears Ms. Deschanel has transformed (finally, we got one!)into one worthy of being compared to the great and powerful, Patsy Cline. Her voice coupled with the style of music, the connection is unmistakable and one can only assume Deschanel is a fan and M. Ward must be too. But don't get me wrong, it doesn't sound like they worked hard to make it sound exactly like Patsy Cline (and it doesn't sound exactly like her), because there's beauty and real love behind this collection of tracks and also, think of the people who made it. If it was simply made to sound like Patsy Cline to sell records, it would be painfully obvious, and probably painfully horrible too.

This is the first english language CD i've bought in years that i needed to hear the whole way through, from the first note on. It blows Wilco's last effort out of the water...which is quite a thing for me to say, i know. But let's face it, 'Sky Blue Sky' is recycled. We've heard it all before, which for me, was a tremendous let down where Wilco is concerned. But since 'She & Him' has never done this before, the fact that a lot of the songs are covers* doesn't matter at all, in fact it breathes even more nostalgic sepia toned exuberance into the first few numbers, all originals penned by Zooey Deschanel. According to an interview i read in Nylon, which is how i found out about this glorious record, Zooey has been hoarding songs for years, casually glancing about, hoping to find the right someone to help her bring them to be. And amazingly enough, M. Ward lends his superior musical skills brilliantly to Zooey's classic pop dreams. Maybe i need to listen to more of his stuff, eh?

I brought up Wilco because a lot of 'She & Him' makes me think of various Wilco pop/country songs and it also makes me hope against hope that Jeff Tweedy will hear Zooey sing and think "hmmmm, maybe i should sing with her..." Dear GOD, i'd, like, totally die, than get up and listen to it again, cry a little, then die again. Anyway, i am so dazzled and needed to write about this right away, but now i have to go listen to it as much as possible and memorize all the lyrics and dream about hoop skirts and big bows, set to an acoustic guitar twang...

*no they're not! sorry, my excitement rendered me incapable of doing the proper research before writing this, like reading the liner notes, and figuring out that actually, all but 2 of the songs are by Zooey Deschanel. the sound is just so authentic, i thought they must be covers. but nope, Zooey is just more amazing than i already thought.