By Allison Stewart
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, March 18, 2008

There isn't exactly stiff competition for the title, but it turns out that professionally depressed folkie M. Ward and twinkly actress Zooey Deschanel, recording as the quirk-pop duo She & Him, are the Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra for the '00s. Armed with a working knowledge of '50s and '60s classics and an obvious affection for a generation of neglected AM-radio torch singers (they may be the only act in the history of hipster civilization to cite Linda Ronstadt as an influence), they've crafted a strange, frequently great new disc.

Deschanel does most of the writing and almost all of the singing on "Volume One," her clear, idiosyncratically pretty voice pushed forward in the mix. Ward adds guitar, production work and occasional harmony and otherwise seems to disappear politely for extended periods of time.

They manage to both fully inhabit these songs and stand outside them at an ironic remove. Deschanel genre-hops through the disc as if she were trying on roles: Here's our version of a Brenda Lee ballad (the stellar "Sentimental Heart"); this is me doing Tammy Wynette ("Got Me"); here's our cover of the Miracles (a starkly fine "You Really Got a Hold on Me"); now we're doing the Beatles (a wobbly "I Should Have Known Better")! Self-conscious and purposefully dated, "Volume One" is a monument to its own fossilized, old-timey cuteness. You might not trust it, but you won't be able to resist.

Download These:"Sentimental Heart," "You Really Got a Hold on Me," "I Thought I Saw Your Face Today"