She & Him – Volume One

Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward are both talented artists with reputations for integrity, good taste and choosing their projects carefully. This duo record had the potential to be either dazzling or a muddled mess. While Deschanel’s a cappella bathroom duet on “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” in the film Elf with Will Ferrell was downright charming, the rising starlet could be just another actor using her indie clout to churn out a sad vanity project. Volume One ends up about midway between those two imagined polar possibilities. Deschanel’s amiable vocals are, in fact, the highlight of the album. She shares some sparkly, pop-meets-country stylistic traits with the likes of Jenny Lewis and Neko Case, and going back further, with Petula Clark and Dusty Springfield. But her songwriting is either callow or shallow, depending on how patient or generous a listener you are. Ward’s intriguing guitar parts, string arrangements and other production nuances — how much reverb is too much? — cannot elevate the songs much beyond light pleasantries. Most interesting are their pseudo-duets on countrified covers of “You Really Got A Hold On Me” and “I Should Have Known Better”, where you get to hear just how powerful and lovely Deschanel’s voice is when she’s tackling quality material.