Album Review: She & Him – “Volume Two”
Why does it always seem like every day I write about She & Him, the weather outside is dim and gloomy?
I think it’s because the universe knows that the answer to a dim and gloomy day is putting on a She & Him record. As expected, the group’s new album, Volume Two, did the trick.
Most of you probably know that the “She” and “Him” of the band’s name are actress Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward respectively. Of course, there’s a lot more She than Him, but that suits the music just fine. Ward is the producer and mostly hangs out in the background, strumming a quiet, mellow guitar, adding some subtle synths here and there, and lending his smoothed-out, super-relaxed croon to a few numbers. His contributions are more noticeable this time around than they were on Volume One, but really, that’s like saying a smidgen is more than a smidge.
No, this is primarily Zooey’s show, and once again she runs with it.
Her cardinal tools are a beautiful voice mixed with enough doe-eyed charm to melt the heart of every Tom Hansen in the world. She channels those gifts into songs that sound as if they were ripped straight from a 60s or 70s radio playlist, with all the girl-group ooh-ahs and doo-wops you’d expect. That sound is even bolstered by the choice of covers – NRBQ’s “Ridin’ in My Car” and Skeeter Davis’ “Gonna Get Along Without You Now.” But while the sound may be heavily anchored in that golden-swathed past, it in no way feels dated. Put it this way: it’s pleasantly retro, not boringly dusty.
You’d expect an album called Volume Two to have a lot of similarities with its predecessor, and you’d be right. You could randomly pick an album’s worth of songs from both records and the resulting product would still sound like a cohesive unit. Volume Two may be a bit more jaunty and musically complex but only slightly. With some bands, it might be disappointing to see them stand pat and not evolve, but what more could you ask from She & Him? They know their limitations. Zooey may be a great singer but she’s not going to belt out those huge notes; and M. Ward isn’t going to churn out some psychedelic prog-rock opus. The band simply has a very defined sound without a lot of room for obvious experimentation.
The lyrical content on the album mainly covers the topics of love lost, love pined for, and the loneliness that comes with being away from a loved one. Classic stuff, as exemplified in “Don’t Look Back,” a retelling of the tale of Orpheus’ meeting with Queen Persephone in the Underworld: “I don’t have to see you every day, but I just want to know you’re there.” “Sing” is probably the only misstep here, and, unsurprisingly, it’s the only place where Zooey strays from that timeless imagery, singing, “Talking on the phone and watching ‘Cribs.’” The album is bookended by its two highlights, the opener “Thieves” – a Kinks-meets-Roy Orbison ditty about a failing relationship – and the closer “If You Can’t Sleep” – a beautiful lullaby built on no instrumentation other than the layering of Zooey’s voice. I could fall asleep to that song every night for the rest of my life, it’s that soothing and beautiful.
The attractive thing about Zooey’s singing style is that even when she’s singing about having her heart broken, it still seems as if she’s doing it through a smile. And that’s the best way to sum up Volume Two: heartbreak through the filter of a smile; even when things seem lost, “there are bluer skies” waiting.
Rating: 
-Sam
Great record. Has an old-fashioned folk feel to it.