Zooey Deschanel Music Guide: Albums, Soundtracks, and Everything You Need to Know
The origin of She & Him traces back to 2006 on the set of the film The Go-Getter. Director Martin Hynes paired Deschanel with Oregon-based singer-songwriter M. Ward for an end-credits duet of Richard and Linda Thompson’s folk ballad "When I Get to the Border." Ward quickly discovered that Deschanel had been writing original songs for years in private, keeping them tucked away on home recordings. Impressed by her raw tape demos, Ward suggested they enter a studio together without industry fanfare.
The result was Volume One, issued in 2008 on independent powerhouse Merge Records. The album caught critics off guard. Rather than relying on modern radio production, the duo looked toward the lush, reverb-soaked walls of sound popularized by Phil Spector, The Ronettes, and 1960s Nashville country. Deschanel wrote eleven of the thirteen tracks, delivering wry, bittersweet lyrics wrapped in breezy AM-radio arrangements. Pitchfork and NPR praised the record's sincerity, cementing the duo as genuine tastemakers in the ascendant indie-pop movement.
By the time Volume Two arrived in 2010, the project had shifted from an intriguing side venture into a commercial force. Debuting inside the top ten of the Billboard 200, the album proved that their breezy California folk-pop resonated with listeners seeking an alternative to over-compressed electronic dance music. Merge Records suddenly found itself managing one of the highest-selling indie releases of that year.
