She and him

I, Julia, will admit to something. After being agaisnt Indie music, I started to like it when I saw "Juno" and got the soundtrack. Thus, my love for indie continued to grow after that. I'm still a newbie when it comes to this genere but I will admit that I like it!
A new band that I'm really enjoying is called "She and him." "She and him" is comprised of M. Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel. Now, zooey's no stranger to singing. She sang for us in "Elf" and was very charming doing so. She still is charming us!
M. Ward was Zooey's musician neighbor and they both share a love of older music. Their cd, entitled "She and him:volume one" explores that old sixities soul sound but reinvents it with modern sounds. My itunes classifies it as 'baroque pop.' The cd starts off with Zooey's beautiful booming voice singing "Sentimental heart," a song about the good times and memories that she's had. I can hear influences of the Beatles within the string section and it almost sounds like a velvet underground song. It's an artsy song that draws you in and peaks your interest to want to listen to the rest of the cd. The next few songs sound the same until we get to "Change is hard." It has country and western folk roots and Zooey sounds like June Carter mixed in with Dusty Springfield. It's more a retrospective song. After this song, we move on to a favorite song of mine called "I saw your face today." It's a jazzy, uplifting song that Zooey sings with perfect blues tone! The next song, "Take it back" is very similar. Then we move directly into the sixties girl group sounding "I was made for you." This is another standout song to me that's just brillant and you just want to sing along and dance with it.
The rest of the cd is pretty good and there is a GREAT cover of "Swing low sweet Chariot." It's a bit call and response with it's delta-blues feel to it. I could see the share croppers or those that worked on the fields in the south, mainly the blacks, singing this, for they were the real pioneers that started rock within the blues sound. It's mostly acapella with a haunting, simple guitar faintly heard within the background.
I think the most exciting part for me was that there were 2 Beatles covers on this cd, "You've really got a hold on me" and "I should've known better." I thought both were brillant but I did like "You've really got a hold on me" a bit better. It was very bluesy/jazzy and it's a duet as well. This is one of the only instances were M. Ward is ever heard singing in the whole cd. It has a vulnerable spirt to human love, like almost obsessing about someone so much it hurts but you can't leave them because you can't break free of them and don't know what you'd do without them.
Now "I should've known better" was a little cheesy because it had hawaiin slide guitar and it just sounded like bad elevator music or something you'd listen to while sipping pina colada's by the pool side with the cabana boy in a bad hawaiin shirt. Needless to say, Zooey's vocals are really well and yet again, another duet. It just sounded a little bit out of place on the cd, I wish they would've left it like it is in the Beatles version. Honestly, the song makes me think of like "Spongebob Squarepants" and I don't think that's what they were aiming for.
All in all, it's a brillant cd that I can't stop listening to and singing along to. Go check it out! I really hope that they make a volume 2 because I really loved this one and it shows that Zooey can not only be an actress but a singer who's for 'real' unlike Scarlett Johanson, Miley Cyrus, or Lindsey Lohan. I also think her voice is very unique which is great because it's like when you hear artists like that with a distinctive voice, you know who they are!
Here's the link to their myspace page if you want it:
http://www.myspace.com/sheandhim

*Edit*=I orignally said that "You've really got a hold on me" was a Beatles cover. It actually is not! It's a cover of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. They were the original writers of the song and the Beatles did a cover of THEIR version. Sorry for the confusion and bad research! I had no idea.