Release Date: May 7, 2013
Somewhere along the journey from an actress typecast solely as a Manic Pixie Dream Girl to a starring TV role in Fox’s “New Girl,” between multiple endorsements for beauty products and Golden Globe, Emmy, and other award nominations, Zooey Deschanel has retained some indie cred as the female lead in She & Him.
With the addition of “Him,” guitarist/vocalist M. Ward, the duo’s latest efforts culminate in 11 original and 3 cover tracks on Volume 3. It appears to start with more of the same cheesy lightheartedness prevalent on the group’s 2008 debut, Volume 1, and its successor, released in 2010. Deschanel opens the leading track, “I’ve Got Your Number, Son,” with her signature swirly, ‘60s pop vocals.
Somehow, She & Him seems like the only group on the planet to take an emotionally ridden situation of heartbreak and torn relationships and make them seem like a sunny-day sidewalk stroll complete with a trip to the candy store.
Give Deschanel’s lyrics a closer listen. As a woman several magazine interviewers have described as a non-stop ball of energy who love, love, loves her work, the recently divorced Deschanel croons in “…Son” that a man is hardly the most important of her priorities: “I sacrifice myself at the altar of someone else’s love for me/No, that doesn’t comfort me.” (As an aside, Deschanel’s ex, Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, recently resumed his side project The Postal Service after an eight-year hiatus.)
It’s a theme that is repeated on the second track and first album single, “Never Wanted Your Love.” But the tone mellows out by “Turn to White,” easily the album’s biggest treat, with slower guitar strums and softer percussion. Deschanel’s vocals aren’t overpowering, for a change, as she sings of a love so fleeting that all that remains of it is in a photograph, and even that is fading.
Listeners shouldn’t be surprised to find themselves checking the tracklist mid-album when “Together” comes on, seeing if albums or artists accidentally were switched—such is the contrast between it and the rest of the album. Like all dutiful hipsters, She & Him is inspired by vintage, but “Together” still sounds a decade apart from the rest of Volume 3. Dancing shoes are required on the ‘70s-infused, disco-reminiscent track that offers pure soul in the chorus: “And we all go through it together/But we all go at it alone.”
It hardly seems coincidental that all three She & Him volumes to date were released in spring months. As the songs melt away the icy feeling of a winter blues-infused breakup, optimism lies in warmer weather and the sense of freedom that summer often brings. But, as with previous Deschanel-Ward releases, the music’s narrator struggles with a balance between being alone and professing her love. It’s no wonder Ward’s standout guitar strums feel like country music back when it was, well, still real country.
Much of the same appears to be in store for She & Him fans within 10 minutes of Volume 3, but hold on. Allow the album to run its course, and it’ll prove true that five years in, the group is growing stronger—not burning out with Deschanel’s new-found fame and recognition.
She & Him – Volume 3 tracklist:
- “I’ve Got Your Number, Son”
- “Never Wanted Your Love”
- “Baby”
- “I Could’ve Been Your Girl”
- “Turn to White”
- “Somebody Sweet to Talk To”
- “Something’s Haunting You”
- “Together”
- “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me”
- “Snow Queen”
- “Sunday Girl”
- “London”
- “Shadow of Love”
- “Reprise (I Could’ve Been Your Girl)”
