When Conor Oberst and his rambling collective known as Bright Eyes
released the best alternative-country album of the young century with
2005's "I'm Wide Awake It's Morning," the twanged-out rock and roll
style, created by Neil Young and maintained by Ryan Adams and Wilco,
reached its apex. You know the sound: bittersweet echoes of gin-soaked
piano keys, worn-out guitar strings, and harmonious vocals shared
between shaky gentleman and soulful ladies.
The tradition is
carried on with "Volume One," the debut record from the due known as
She & Him. The band is a unique, somewhat unlikely collaboration
between indie-rock icon M. Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel. Merge
Records, the duo's label, calls the collaboration a "story of musical
serendipity." Marketing angles aside, that is a pretty accurate way of
describing the premise of She & Him. Although M. Ward has proven
his chops over the past few years with several acclaimed albums (most
notably 2006's "Post-War"), Deschanel's talent as a musician is far
from established, at least in the public eye. However, you may recall
her surprisingly pleasant rendition of "Baby Its Cold Outside" in the
2003 holiday film "Elf." So, at the very least, we know that she can
keep up with Will Ferrell.
In the case of "Volume One," she
keeps up with M. Ward pretty easily, due to the fact that he sings with
her on a mere two tracks. Although he keeps things interesting with his
catchy compositions (which range from quaint, down-home strings to
sprawling, Brian Wilson inspired orchestration), after the first few
songs you begin wondering when Ward's simple baritone might show up.
The imbalance of vocals hurts the sound of the record; Deschanel's
voice, which is lovely in small doses, overwhelms the whole show. Her
voice is closer to June Carter than Emmylou Harris, and that deep,
faux-southern alto may grow jarring after a few listens.
The
album opens with "Sentimental Heart," a light piano number that
escalates into unexpected beauty, complete with splashy cymbals and
backing vocals straight out of Phil Spector's Wall of Sound. The song
is lyrically simple like most of the album - the words seem closer to
tunes from Motown than Nashville. As Deschanel croons, "Piece of the
puzzle and you're my missing part / Oh, what can you do with a
sentimental heart?" I instinctively thought of Carole King mixed with
the Shirelles - simple, yet poignant words belted out with unrivaled
gumption. The Motown influence is especially apparent on "I Was Made
For You," which seems especially out of place on the album. M. Ward
clearly traded in his Tammy Wynette records for The Supremes when he
dreamed up this vibrant little tune.
Speaking of Ward, it is his two duets with Deschanel that stand out as
the finest tracks "Volume One." The first is the slow-burning "You
Really Gotta Hold On Me" which begins with the duo singing back and
forth over a sparse acoustic guitar. As ironic as it sounds, this song
(which happens to be the truest example of alt-country on the album) is
actually a cover from Smokey Robinson & The Miracles.
On
Ward's other vocal track, the pedal-steel driven "I Should Have Known
Better," all of the elements of She & Him finally unite in that
'serendipitous' harmony the label assured us of. "I Should Have Known
Better" is the second cover song on the album - a classic
Lennon/McCartney track from the Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" motion
picture soundtrack. Guitarist Mike Coykendall (who also appeared on
Bright Eyes' 2007 "Four Winds EP") is wonderful on that pedal-steel,
shredding ever so softly beneath Deschanel and Ward's warm voices.
"Volume
One" ends with a delicate rendition of the traditional "Swing Low,
Sweet Chariot," which closes out the record in a surprisingly humble
fashion. For most of the song's minute and 39 seconds, Deschanel is
accompanied solely by a thick, yet unobtrusive fog of feedback. Her
voice is the driving force behind most of the record and M. Ward does
the right thing by letting her take it home in style.
Will it go
down as one of alt-country's finest? No, no it won't. At times, "Volume
One" is a rare showcase of the melancholy and the beautiful, while at
other points it sounds closer to leftover tracks from Jenny Lewis' solo
album with the Watson Twins. While M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel
successfully outshine the novelty surrounding their serendipitous
collaboration, "Volume One" is an awkward example of folk rock at its
cutest - which may or may not be a good thing. If She & Him decide
to hang around for "Volume 2," hopefully they'll work out some of the
kinks - and maybe M. Ward will decide to sing a few songs. Now that
would be a great record.