Mar 21, 2008 - 04:05:05 CDT
The problem with being a famous actress is that the last thing you want to do is act. Instead, all you want to do is sing.And sing they do, because all famous people are entitled to record at least one album, with little regard paid to whether they can actually sing or not. Hillary Duff, Paris Hilton, Russell Crowe, Don Johnson, Bruce Willis; the list goes on. Does anyone remember the Lindsay Lohan experiment? Of course not; it was so horrible, your brain has blacked out the memory of her album's buzzsaw effect on your ears and replaced it with the mental image of a small puppy, licking your face, for the sake of your own sanity.
Yes, that's right. Your childhood dog Marshmallow never actually existed. That was Lindsay Lohan and a touch of psychosis.
Sometimes, inexplicably, an actress can actually sing, and can actually write her own songs, and that most recent example of this is Zooey Deschanel.
Sure, she's not all that famous, so I'm probably going to have to refresh your memory. Remember the big sister to the magical child journalist in "Almost Famous"? Remember the love interest to Will Ferrell in "Elf"? Trillian in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"?
Yes, that's her. Zooey Deschanel:object of affection to every sci-fi or music nerd out there. Just to lay eyes upon her is to know she must be a really pleasant person, with her warm face and those big, blue eyes that can melt a man's heart into a puddle of goo, and you wonder if maybe, were you two to meet, if she'd like to go get a cup of coffee somewhere ...
Er ... that's if you're into girls who aren't my awesome and understanding girlfriend, Annette, who is probably reading this, and should probably be reminded that I don't even like coffee. It was all rhetorical, Iswear.
Anyway, Deschanel's cashed in her good-for-one-album-with-your-name-on-it certificate the right way, enlisting the help of one of the very best of singer-songwriters today, M. Ward, to record "Volume One"under the monicker of She & Him.
It certainly helps that Deschanel truly has a soft, sublimely delicate singing voice. It's in the register of some AMradio classic singers, like June Carter or the Andrews Sisters.
In fact, the entire arrangement of songs harks back to an older style of sound and songwriting. Everything sounds very mature and nostalgic, which is due to the production savvy of Ward, and suited perfectly with Deschanel's seeming reverence for rockers and country artists like Neil Young and Carole King, or Tammy Wynette and George Jones.
Nods to elder inspiration come in the choice of two cover songs, Smokey Robinson's "You Really Got a Hold on Me," and the Beatles' "I Should Have Known Better," which are the only two songs to feature Ward on backup vocals.
As a whole, "Volume One" is a textbook to how any actor-actress should go about treading into unknown waters. It doesn't come off as a vanity project for a Hollywood starlet. She's paired up with an artist who lends instant credibility to the project. Every song is saturated in reverence to a history of important songwriters and songs.
This album is one memory so warm and fuzzy, your mind won't feel the need to augment it.
(Reach columnist Kelly Hagen at 250-8259 or kelly.hagen@;bismarcktribune.com.)
khagen wrote on Mar 28, 2008 12:23 AM:
I'd like to disagree with you, but you don't provide enough context to your remarks for me to do so properly. By what definition do you mean "Interest" or "response." If you mean negative response, then yes, I guess I don't draw in a lot of that. Are you basing it on sheer quantities of comments to my columns? Yes, this one has two, but last week's had over 20. I topped out at close to 50 in a column about Heath Ledger. Quantity of comments don't really show up in our performance reviews at the Tribune. In case you hadn't noticed, letters to the editor usually get the most response in terms of comments, and those writers aren't even employees here.
Are you judging "response" on personal communications I receive? Because, I didn't even know you had the password to my e-mail account. I've received an overwhelming amount of wonderful e-mails and calls from readers in my time writing here. I couldn't ask for more "response," and I don't think the Tribune would, either.
Be more specific in what kind of "response" you can provide to the Tribune that I haven't. Also, the best way to secure a job is to provide a resume, application and clips of writing you've had published. Not two-sentence taunts in the comment section.
Thanks for reading. "
Captain Crunch wrote on Mar 27, 2008 11:21 PM:
REX wrote on Mar 23, 2008 7:01 AM:
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