She & Him: Volume Two

She & Him are a songwriter and producer pairing making lovelorn early 60s pop songs in the Brill Building tradition. Unlike her songwriting forebears, though, "she" is indie flick starlet Zooey Deschanel, an actress dogged by the adjective "kooky". Thankfully, her voice is an unforced oddity: mature with a gentle twang, it was a welcome surprise on the pair's acclaimed 2008 debut. Now, as then, her voice is married with M Ward's gentle arrangements (and, all too rarely, his own honeyed crooning, as on NRBQ cover "Ridin' in My Car") to make for a delicious, nostalgia-soaked treat of a record.