She & Him: A Very She & Him Christmas

Christmas Albums. Being as I’ve never actually made one myself, I can’t be too certain, but I imagine it’s a fun and rewarding enterprise for everyone involved, especially for those musicians wrapped up in the creative struggle of crafting long-player after long-player. The Christmas Album represents a lot of things to a lot of people—obviously the spirit of the holiday season, the closeness of loved ones, nostalgia for youth and simpler times. But for musicians, it’s always sort of been about cleansing the palette. Let’s be honest, pretty much nobody since the days of Dean Martin has done anything all that new or interesting with the Yuletide format (and, no, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra doesn’t count), which is why a project like Sufjan Stevens’ possibly-too-ambitious box-set Songs for Christmas was such an exciting prospect; not only was he covering a handful of old staples, but he also wrote some new ones, and even within the confines of the standards, he managed to bring something new to the table, reframing songs you’ve heard 10,000 times (and have probably been annoyed by more than once) in an artful, personal way.

So…where does that leave us with She & Him’s merry take? For the most part, this old-fashioned, cuter-than-ever duo fails to bring anything all that interesting to the table. Deschanel’s voice (always a bit too cutesy for my taste) is definitely precise, hitting all the notes in the appropriate spots. But she’s mainly on sleepy auto-pilot, oddly devoid of holiday cheer, as if she laid down her parts on a solitary breezy afternoon (possibly in the middle of summer). As always, everything M. Ward touches is infinitely listenable—and vocally, his warm, scratchy baritone sounds both fresh and suitable filling the shoes of holiday crooners past. The recordings are rich and organic, and Ward’s instrumental flourishes alone make the album worth listening to: “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” despite Deschanel’s awkward pseudo-twang, is a pure pleasure—dig Ward’s spiky jazz guitar solo and those spot-on high-octave piano flourishes. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most pleasurable track here is an original—the woozy, lonesome country guitars and Phil Spector wall of harmonies on “Christmas Day” are absolutely thrilling. In contrast, a more representative track is Deschanel’s more solo ukelele take on “Silver Bells,” a straight-up snoozer. Sort of like one of those musical Hallmark cards, minus the personal touch.

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