Tag: She & Him

2010 in Music: #13 She & Him – Volume Two

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DISCLAIMER: I have a huge girlcrush on Zooey Deschanel. On the other hand, I liked but didn’t love Volume One – it was one that I enjoyed listening to but never really captured me beyond being pleasant background music. I pretty much assumed that Volume Two would be the same way, but bought it anyway because pleasant retro music is often welcome.

Then a couple of months ago a few of the songs got randomly stuck in my head and I ended up listening to the album on repeat for days. Since then I’ve gone back and gained more appreciation for Volume One, but I do think Volume Two is a more assured, more confident effort from Zooey and M. Ward. They’re growing into their style, doing some really catchy originals and some really attractive covers.

Retro stylings have been a big thing this year in LA indie rock, and She & Him have definitely managed to carve out their own niche even among all the other retro bands – they wouldn’t sound out of place in a 1960s film, but there’s a great freshness and immediate exuberance to Zooey’s vocals and Matt’s arrangements. The album didn’t grab me immediately, but it’s the kind that worms its way into my head and gleefully refuses to leave.

Summer 2010 Soundtrack

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Or perhaps more correctly, this is the soundtrack to my own personal summer 2010, but hey. Semantics aside, these are basically my earworms of the summer. The few criteria I worked with: they had to be songs I’m listening to almost constantly this summer, or keep coming back to off their respective albums; they had to be off albums that were current (a full list of my earworms right now would include some Joan Jett, but that’s really it outside of this year’s releases, and that would seem anomalous); and they had to be good songs for listening to while driving with the windows down. At first I tried finding all really upbeat, summery songs, but that quickly ran askew of the first criterion, but even the slower/mellower songs on here rise to pretty awesome levels by the end. So it’s cool.

Download the full .zip file here.

01. The New Pornographers – Crash Years
02. Mates of State – Long Way Home (Tom Waits cover)
03. Admiral Radley – Sunburn Kids
04. Stars – We Don’t Want Your Body
05. Metric – Black Sheep
06. Seaspin – Reverser
07. Los Campesinos! – Romance is Boring
08. Arcade Fire – Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)
09. Beach House – Zebra
10. Charlotte Gainsbourg – Time of the Assassins
11. Broken Social Scene – All to All
12. Kathryn Calder – Slip Away
13. Kaki King – The Betrayer
14. The New Pornographers – Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk
15. Jenny & Johnny – Big Wave
16. She & Him – In the Sun
17. Kathryn Calder – Castor And Pollux
18. Best Coast – Our Deal
19. Arcade Fire – Ready to Start
20. Stars – Wasted Daylight
21. Broken Social Scene – Meet Me in the Basement

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