She & Him - Volume Two (2010)

So, where’s him? That’s what I kept thinking while listening to this album. M. Ward’s bluesy guitar playing pops up here and there, but his awesomely rustic singing voice is unfortunately used very sparingly in favor of Zooey Deschanel’s higher, sweet-but-relatively-bland voice. It just comes down to a matter of preference, and I much prefer M. Ward’s singing style. When he finally appears, on “Ridin’ in my Car,” he injects some much overdue soul to the music that lends some variety, but he only sings a few lines and then goes back to playing a supporting role to Zooey. His guitar playing is generally good, and he sings backup now and then, but everything Him does is overshadowed by She. There is a place on my itunes for pleasant, female sung, indie pop. I like Rilo Kiley, Camera Obscura, and The Fiery Furnaces, to name a few off the top of my head. However, those bands pull it off with a bit more style than Zooey does. The album has a distinctly old-timey style to it. Zooey’s voice, which is nice, reminds me of those old girl groups, and M. Ward provides backing music that mostly remains in the background as if it wants not to distract from the vocals. I was somewhat disappointed this isn’t a truer collaboration. M. Ward might as well be a session musician. Some duets would have been wonderful. As most fans of Volume I (which I haven’t heard) might expect, this is a decent pop album. I doubt those searching for this really want another M. Ward album—as I do, admittedly—and I’m sure this will satisfy fans of the genre.

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