Today She & Him announce Classics, an album of carefully-selected, timeless standards coming this fall via their new label Columbia Records. The band is Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, “She” & “Him” respectively. On Thursday the band released a sample below.
She & Him recorded the album live, allowing a spontaneity that captured the spirit of the songs in their truest form. Ward exercised his acute ear for string arrangements, co-arranging a full 20-piece orchestra. The result unfurls as thirteen classic cuts as heartbreaking as they are uplifting.
“We are incredibly excited to release a record of our favorite songs. It was a dream of ours to record these songs in a way that highlighted the brilliance of the songwriting and the beauty of their melodies. We had a wonderful time making the record and we hope people have a wonderful time listening to it,” says Deschanel.
The duo is as comfortable and complementary together as the Brill Building and The Shirelles: the perfect pair to realize their long-time goal of putting these standards to wax. With Deschanel‘s powerfully pure and emotive voice, and Ward‘s seemingly-effortless mastery of instrumentation, the band’s music is only matched by their feverous passion and knowledge of the standards themselves. Chosen with the thoughtful precision of a scholar, albeit an impassioned scholar, some tunes may ring familiar, and some She & Him hope become familiar.
