She & Him
A Very She & Him Christmas (Merge Records)
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M. Ward must think he died and went to celebrity heaven. The day Portland's Matthew Stephen Ward met Zooey Deschanel on a movie set and made her his musical partner was the best career move of his life.
He wasn't doing too bad on his own but teaming up with Deschanel took him to an entirely different level of business. And he can still be indie singer/songwriter M. Ward when the occasion calls for it.
When Norah Jones played the Vancouver International Jazz Festival back in 2007 and M. Ward opened for her, Deschanel was his surprise guest on a couple of songs. At that point it wasn't clear if the duo concept was a one-off thing or would lead to something bigger.
Two albums and a Christmas record later it looks like the She & Him thing is going to stick around for awhile.
Deschanel's not going to sneak up and surprise anybody anymore as everybody knows she can steal a scene or a song with the bat of an eyelash. Give her the most cliched premise for a TV show and damned if she won't make something out of it so Christmas songs should be no trouble for her at all.
Deschanel's no stranger to Christmas music either having sung "Baby, It's Cold Outside" as a duet with Leon Redbone in Elf. She & Him reprise that 1936 Frank Loesser chestnut on their new album of 12 timeless seasonal favourites.
Most Xmas songs have been done so many times before that other versions (Elvis Presley = "Blue Christmas"; Brenda Lee = "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree") immediately come to mind but that's sort of the point - right down to the retro packaging She & Him are all about tapping into tradition.
