When She & Him – New Girl star Zooey Deschanel and alt-star M. Ward – decided to do an honest-to-god Christmas album in 2011, A Very She & Him Christmas (QRO review), it might have been the most mainstream thing that Merge Records ever did. And now the duo is on major imprint Columbia to do an honest-to-god second Christmas release, just in time for the holiday buying season. But once you get over all of that (if you can), it’s actually a nice, stripped-down piece of work.
Yes, there are lots of classics that you’ve heard a million times, such as “Let It Snow”, Irving Berlin’s “Happy Holiday”, and even “Christmas Don’t Be Late”, which was made famous by the Alvin & The Chipmunks version. Not all are ultra-familiar standards (special mention must be made of the Hawaiian “Mele Kalikimaka”), but definitely all feel like something you might hear on a holiday radio station.
However, what makes Christmas Party stand out is that Deschanel & Ward largely strip away big holiday effects, like Linus reminding Charlie Brown what the over-commercialized holiday is really all about. Take opener “All I Want For Christmas Is You”, a more recent Mariah Carey song, but done as sixties sway. Even team-ups like with alt-songstress Jenny Lewis on “Must Be Santa” and “Winter Wonderland” feel anything but overdone. Plus Ward is a minimalist expert with his guitar (and gets one lead vocal piece, “Run Run Rudolph”).
No, Christmas Party isn’t going to change how a hipster feels about Christmas albums or She & Him, and a cloying nature still sticks to it like a wet candy cane (plus not even The New Girl can make one forget about Alvin wanting a “hula hoop”…). But for what it is, it is a very sweet holiday release.
