Like 99 percent of She & Him listeners, I discovered Zooey Deschanel’s singing talents through her film work. Many were hooked when she sang a short song in “Elf.” But it took me until last year’s “(500) Days of Summer,” in which she soft-sings “To die by your side / Is such a heavenly way to die” to Tom in the elevator and covers another Smiths song on the soundtrack.
The first She & Him album (2008’s aptly titled Volume One) is a showcase of Deschanel’s beautiful voice. (By the way, the Him in She & Him is M. Ward, responsible for the ’60s-esque chamber pop and beach-style music that accompanies Zooey’s voice so nicely.)
But the recently released Volume Two is a significant step forward. If Deschanel is someday known more as a musician than an actress, we will point to this album as the turning point.
The reason is Deschanel’s songwriting. On Volume One, Deschanel used her voice to make OK songs listenable. Those songs sounded kind of like throwaway tunes from the ’60s. On Volume Two, the songs are poppier and catchier, and they sound like they should have been hits in the ’60s.
“Lingering Still” has a two-word title hook that so many pop hits used to have: “And the world’s like a science and I’m like a secret / But I saw you lingering still / I saw you lingering still.” I can picture Zooey singing it on “American Bandstand” and making the guys and the gals in the studio audience swoon. “Over It Over Again” also has a hooky feel to it: “I’ve gotten over it over and over again.”
For some reason, “Thieves” makes me think of Deschanel’s cotton commercials. When she breaks into “And I know, and you know too / That love like ours is terrible news,” I think she’s going to say “The touch, the feel of cotton / The fabric of our lives.” Hopefully I’ll get past that someday, because the actual lyrics are good ones.
A couple songs are kind of bland, serving as filler that you don’t have to think about too hard until the next poppy song kicks in. The chorus on “Me and You” is a bit of a yawner: “You’ve got to be kind to yourself / You’ve got to be kind to yourself.”
“Brand New Shoes” almost does away with the backing band entirely; it’s just a smidgen of acoustic guitar as Zooey sings: “It’s nothing, nothing, nothing / Nothing at all.”
“If You Can’t Sleep” is a more effective non-instrument track. With its hummed female backing vocals, it almost gets into the atmospheric zone of Cat Power as Deschanel sings “Goodbye shadows / Goodbye shadows.”
It’ll be interesting to see if She & Him delves into slightly darker territory like this on future albums, but I’m certainly not complaining about the sunny stuff, like “In the Sun.” This tune is made all the more great by the music video in which an adorable Zooey and a bunch of backup dancers turn it into a dance number; perhaps she was jealous that Joseph-Gordon Levitt got to do that Hall & Oates sequence in “(500) Days?”
Two of the 13 tracks are written by outside songwriters. The best — and the album’s best entry, to be honest — is “Ridin’ My Car,” a delicious traveling tune. The lyrics lament relationship troubles, yet they always lead into the chorus: “And I still think about you every time I’m riding in my car.”
Ward chips in on the vocals here, and he has a nice voice. Actually, he sounds kind of like a girl, and Deschanel can sometimes break out a deeper-sounding voice, so Ward probably figures his duets with Zooey aren’t an ideal mix, but I liked it anyway.
For the foreseeable future, I’ll be thinking about (and listening to) She & Him every time I’m riding in my car.