Is there anything less ‘indie’ than a Christmas album? A record celebrating the biggest Christian holiday, the biggest commercial holiday – the biggest straight-up holiday in the world? A covers record of songs that not only your parents, but even your grandparents know? A record released to sell during the holiday shopping season? This is something Barry Manilow does, not Merge Records (though The Suburbs – QRO review – did just win the Grammy for Record of the Year…). But if you’re gonna get a Christmas album, get A Very She & Him Christmas.
Just to up the ‘anti-indie-cred’, ‘She’ of She & Him is actress Zooey Deschanel, currently starring in the new hit FOX sitcom The New Girl, where she plays the “adorkable” (FOX’s made-up word, not QRO’s…) new girl Jess, who has her own penchant for singing at odd times. But Deschanel does have a strong voice, one that throws back to the country/folk crooners of the fifties and early sixties like Patsy Cline, and it’s a sound that’s been getting a general rediscovery in the alt-world (it all started when Cline was name-checked & played on Lost…). And ‘Him’ is alt-folk star M. Ward, who has moved up from supporting the likes of Bright Eyes (QRO live review) to standing beside Conor Oberst & others as one of The Monsters of Folk (QRO album review) and charting with his own solo material (QRO solo record).
And She & Him’s style is perfectly suited for playing the Christmas classics. From the simple & sweet “The Christmas Waltz” to the slow Mel Tormé “The Christmas Song”, Ward & Deschanel revive the country Christmas of yore. They don’t largely do anything very new with the songs, but they really couldn’t – though the stripped nature lets Ward’s slower picking, slightly echoing/reverb guitar stand out more on some tracks.
The songs vary in quality depending on the original’s quality, whether it’s in She & Him’s wheelhouse, and whether or not you’re sick of the song. For instance, “Blue Christmas” is an overused Christmas song, and the blue vocals aren’t Deschanel’s strong suit, but “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” is an underappreciated yuletide gem (“I’ll be home for Christmas / If only in my dreams” is a line that captures the sad-yet-hopeful Depression-era life like nothing since “Somewhere over the rainbow”) that She & Him polish to shine. Ward’s guitar adds to that and the prior “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, and he’s kind of sly in his one solo turn at lead vocals that follows, “Christmas Wish”. He & Deschanel have a flirty duet in “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”, while “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is Christmas-country “in that new old-fashioned way.”
There’s bound to be tons of hipsters who aren’t going to like A Very She & Him Christmas, but they wouldn’t like any (non-mock) Christmas album. Deschanel’s profile has only risen since she joined sister Emily (of Bones) on FOX, so you might be sick of The New Girl. And these aren’t exactly new songs or sounds. But in the twenty-first century, everything old is new again, even the very old – just look at the success of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings (QRO album review), who’ve revived Stax Records-era Motown, while not necessarily doing anything ‘alt’ with it. A Very She & Him Christmas might be the first indie record that you could buy your grandmother – so if you’re gonna get a Christmas album, get A Very She & Him Christmas.
MP3 Stream: “I’ll Be Home For Christmas“
