Christmas Came Early This Year

I mentioned it on Facebook when I first downloaded the She & Him Christmas album, but usually I'm opposed to Christmas music before December. This has nothing to do with me being anti-Christmas or anything like that. It's actually pretty similar to why I don't listen to the radio much. Stores and restaurants start pumping Christmas music in around Halloween, which means everywhere you go you end up hearing the same songs over and over again for 2+ months. If they did this with any other type of music, I'd probably be annoyed by it too.

With that out of the way though, I can make an exception to this usual rule when it involves listening to new music by She & Him. The album, A Very She & Him Christmas, consists of 12 covers of Christmas songs ranging from the classics you'd expect (like Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, The Christmas Song, and Sleigh Ride) to a couple others that are less familiar (or at least were to me, like The Christmas Waltz and Christmas Wish). Most of the songs feature Zooey Deschanel singing, but M. Ward gets into the mix on a few tracks too (which you may have guessed are my early favorites). If you enjoy She & Him, or just have a soft-spot for Christmas music, the album should be a welcome addition to your listening rotation.

Below you can listen to (and I believe download), The Christmas Waltz, the lead track on the album.

She & Him - The Christmas Waltz by MergeRecords

If you want to hold off on listening to the album until closer to Christmas, I won't hold it against you. However, you can currently download it for only $5 at Amazon, so I'd recommend at least buying it now if you'll want it for Christmas time. If you're more interested in the physical album and some other goodies, you can get that along with She & Him wrapping paper or a hat and mittens in the Merge Records store. And in keeping with the Christmas spirit, a portion of the proceeds go to 826 National, a non-profit organization that runs writing and tutoring centers in cities across the US that also help encourage creativity among the nation's youth. So basically, you can't go wrong buying the album.

I've already wracked up 3 listens in as many days. I obviously won't listen to it every day between now and Christmas, but the album is sure to get regular listens and become a Christmas favorite of mine for years to come. So whether you listen now or later, hopefully it'll bring you a little Christmas cheer!

Bright Sunny Day Music from She & Him

There are very few artists who seem as perfect for a sunny day as She & Him. A while ago, I posted that Otis Redding was one of my sunny day artists, and She & Him is right up there with him. Today we had temperatures pushing 70, which was a welcome change from a gloomy day before. That combined with a Twins win over the Yankees (an oh so rare occurrence) has me in a perfect She & Him mood.

She & Him are a (grammatically disastrous) collaboration between actress Zooey Deschanel (a personal favorite of mine) and M. Ward (my favorite musician), so it's little surprise that the pairing is a favorite of mine as well. The two met on the set of the movie The Go Getter, which starred Zooey, and featured a soundtrack by M. Ward. They teamed up for a cover of a song called "When I Get To The Border" that ran over the closing credits. Zooey revealed to M. Ward that she had recorded some songs on her own, and he wanted to properly record them, and thus the group was born. I will have what will likely be an exceedingly (and to most people unnecessarily) long M. Ward post at some point, but for now, just enjoy the video below for the song "In The Sun" and think about happy, sunny times with lots of Twins victories over the Yankees!

She & Him - In The Sun from Merge Records on Vimeo.

Hopefully writing this is enough of a positive distraction after the Twins game. Back to homework!