Bloggerhythms

Cyber Monday was the impetus for a lot of great music deals from Amazon. The massive online store even offered some downloads for as little as $1.99 per album, a price too good to ignore. One of these bargains was A Very She & Him Christmas the latest CD by singer-songwriter M. Ward and his singing partner, the terminally cute actress, Zoey Deschanel. The third release by the pair is an unoriginal but pleasing take on twelve mostly famous Christmas tunes. More sparsely arranged than She & Him's first two discs, many of the songs consist of little more than solo acoustic guitar supporting Deschanel's sometimes multi-tracked vocals. Some light percussion, ukulele, keyboards, and electric guitar occasionally spice up the songs and Ward duets with her on a few tracks, taking the lead on one. Deschanel has a voice good enough to do the job but it isn't especially distinguished or powerful. "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" and "The Christm...

There is an old hit record from 1965 by an overly cute British Invasion band named Herman's Hermits called "I'm Henry the VII, I Am" in which lead vocalist Peter Noone sings, "Second verse, same as the first." It's a line that perfectly describes She & Him's sophomore release for two reasons. First, to girls, Noone's image was almost too cuddly and innocent for his own good in a similar way that She & Him's lead singer, Zooey Deschanel, is to guys. The second reason is because the film star and her partner, pop-rocker M. Ward, have issued, Volume Two , an album that is essentially a reworking of their 2008 debut. As on Volume One Deschanel and Ward offer us another full disc of Phil Spectorized songs very reminiscent of 1960's girl groups such as The Dixie Cups and The Shangri-Las. While there is nothing new or musically adventurous about any of this music it's all quite fun to listen to. Deschanel wrote eleven of the ...

Semi-famous actress, Zooey Deschanel, has found a second career as a pop-rocking singer-songwriter with a fixation for the 60s. We're not talking about Woodstock, tie-dyed t-shirts, wah-wah pedals, fuzz boxes, or the seventeen minute electric guitar jams that dominated the latter half of the decade. We're talking about music you may hear on an episode of Mad Men : Motown, early Beatles, Phil Spector style girl groups, and Brill Building pop with a little bit of country music thrown into the mix. Deschanel has teamed with folk-rocker M. Ward and together they made one of the best albums of last year. The two met on the movie set of 2007's The Go-Getter , sang a Richard and Linda Thompson duet for the film, became friends, and discovered they had a lot in common musically. Their one time recording session soon turned into a more lasting partnership and they convened at Ward's studio to record this disc. While this album may appear to be Deschanel's CD, with just a...