She & Him – Volume One
American folk direct from the lips of better known American actress Zooey Deschanel.
She found time for a cover in there, but largely all this material has been writen by the artist. You can tell she has a heart in folk as this is a very passionate – if breezy – effort.
As with the very best of american folk her thick accent comes right through piercing every syllable.
‘Change is Hard’ is probably one of the more basic tracks on the album, but its a sweet song that her voice works wonders with – as her voice is most efficiently used when as simplistic as possible.
This of course makes any hard crooning that little bit out of her reach. But ultimately the album seems to be trying to cover as many folk and love ballad bases as possible and ends up a montage of other music that she is playing ode to (it even including 50’s she-bop number!). And to all extents and purposes she succeeds beautifully. There should certainly be a follow up, but maybe next time she can drop the cliche that comes with the music and take the next step and see just where this music can go. And if the title is anything to go by, then a second installment should be on the way!