 Don't Look Back
She & Him Turn Up the Volume
With movies, a sequel always has to be bigger and bolder and splashier. One doesn't really consider a musical act's albums quite the same way, but when your first record is titled Volume One and your second Volume Two, with related cover artwork, it does tend to imply that they are mere chapters of a larger whole. Singer, songwriter and actress Zooey Deschanel may not look at it that way, but her second album under the banner She & Him, her collaboration with fellow musician M. (Matt) Ward, is noticeably more confident and ambitious than the first in its arrangements and performances. As with any worthy sequel, if the simplicity and pleasant surprise of She & Him's 2008 debut is missed, the ongoing charm of the project, the good vibes these guys stir in your innards, not to mention the sincere care and taste put into the material, makes Volume Two a praiseworthy second act, and a reassuring reminder that She & Him is no mere vanity-fueled toss-off. They're for real. They've got stayin' power. "I think we were just sorta more comfortable in our roles [this time], more confident," offers Deschanel during a recent phone chat. "We had more resources as well. We made the first record without a label, and then we brought it to labels after it was finished up. [Now] we have an amazing label [Merge], and so it felt more like, you know, a machine had been running a little bit longer." For his part, Ward says he "wanted to take the record in the same direction as Volume One," but "push it farther and see what would happen. Zooey's songs on the new record are a little more involved and more emotional." Ward says he didn't know what to expect when he was first paired up with the actress to record a Richard & Linda Thompson song – "When I Get to the Border" – for the closing credits of her 2008 film The Go-Getter (shot in '07). "I knew she had an unforgettable voice from seeing Elf years ago," he says, but "I had no idea that she would be a great songwriter until I heard the demos." Deschanel, who turned 30 in January, had been making home demos of her songs for years. "I would record them all on my computer," she says. "I kinda get very deep into [overdubbing] backing vocals. It was a little bit of an obsession, actually. That's sort of like how it started. I was spending all my time making these recordings... I still like listening to them. It's actually probably the most lo-fi sounding one, but I did an a cappella version of 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,' that was one of the first things I sent to Matt, and it's on the first record." It's the brief closing song on that album, missing from the cover's track-listing, and in case you haven't heard it, it conveys a bit of the weird spookiness of a vintage 78, minus the pops and crackles. Thinking about it now, it's no surprise it caught Ward's ears. "The chords, the melodies and the voice," Ward responds when asked what qualities he likes most about Zooey's songs. "We definitely have a love for older ideas in music. I could talk to you all day about my favorite guitarists and productions from the last century. Zooey could talk to you all day about older girl groups from the last century..."
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