Well folks, She & Him Volume Two made it’s way to us this past Tuesday.  Before I continue, I’ll just state that I’m completely biased, won-over, musically infatuated, girl-crushing, and will never have a bad opinion for She & Him.  M. Ward is a very talented man, whether solo, with Monsters of Folk, or with the lovely younger Deschanel.  But really, She & Him is mainly about her.  As a (shocking, I know) huge fan of Zooey Deschanel, from her Christmas crooning in Elf to the wonderfully oddball Kat on Weeds, the karaoke videos online, or studio album releases, to me she can do no wrong.  Now that my short love letter’s complete, I’ll carry on.

After releasing the track Thieves, and delivering a completely adorable (sorry, can’t help it) video for In The Sun, the album first streamed on NPR a week early, giving everyone a small saccharine sample of what to expect.  Their sophomore album delivers the characteristically She & Him sunny upbeat retro sounds we heard last time, now with lesser take on the slow numbers thrown between. For whatever reason, despite the mix of relationship tracks within, 2008′s Volume One has always resonated to me as new crush/new boy in town mix of songs, all originating from the line “I’m just sitting on the shelf.”

With Volume Two, excluding the tracks Home and If You Can’t Sleep, I’m fighting the urge to see it as the breakup and over it album to what came from Volume One. That’s by no means a bad thing, but with many of Zooey’s lyrics, along with the Skeeter Davis cover Gonna Get Along Without You Now, I can’t help but feel that way.  That said and the rest of the album aside, Home has given me one of my favorite new bits of lyric, “Let’s just sit and do nothing, nothing at all for awhile, I like the way you smile.”  I’ll give it a 4 out of 5.