She & Him - Melt Away: A Tribute to Brian Wilson [Coloured LP]

Concord

£22.95

Format: LP, Coloured
Catalogue No.: 7244105
Barcode: 0888072441057
Release Date: 22 Jul 2022
Genre: Indie Pop

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Only 300 available in the UK.

She & Him, the acclaimed twosome of M.Ward and Zooey Deschanel are known for the stylish arrangements, sophisticated interpretations, and sharply drawn originals they have perfected across their exceedingly fruitful six-album, 14-year collaboration. Now, with Melt Away: A Tribute to Brian Wilson, their seventh full-length release (and first for Fantasy), the duo has crafted a love letter to 60’s-era Southern California-inspired pop that stands on its own as a defining musical achievement.

Produced by M.Ward and mixed by Tom Schick (Wilco, Norah Jones, Iron and Wine), Melt Away: A Tribute to Brian Wilson is the pair’s first in six years and features an abundance of smartly chosen Wilson/Beach Boys compositions, some universally beloved and others a little less familiar. All of them though, whether ingrained in your soul or hearing for the first time, share a flair for the dramatic. Ward and Deschanel bring their uncanny communal musical instincts to these pop-noir confections and re-imagine them for these times.

The inviting, twangy album opener, Brian Wilson and Mike Love’s “Darlin’,” (from the Beach Boys 1967 album Wild Honey) sets a high bar that She & Him meets throughout. The duo’s devoted take on “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” is especially revealing. Most wouldn’t consider touching the stone-cold classic, yet they lean into it with unabashed joy. Elsewhere, the band’s sublime version of Wilson’s mournful “Til I Die” is a three-minute and 22 second marvel. Deschanel’s spectacular vocal turn on the criminally overlooked Wilson solo cut “Melt Away” transforms the original’s lush, string-heavy treatment into a post-modern folk-pop gem. Other highlights include the surf-rock throwback “Do It Again,” featuring vocals from Brian Wilson himself (!) and the graceful “Please Let Me Wonder,” a long-treasured Wilson album cut. Finally, the Beach Boy’s timeless “Don’t Worry Baby” might be the album’s centerpiece and most affecting track. M.Ward’s earthy, laconic lead vocal layered over an exquisite arrangement feels organic and completely new – just like this album, a stunner in every way.

Genre: Indie Pop, Classic Rock, Covers, Twee Pop, 60’s Rock

Mood Descriptions: Summer Vibes, Upbeat, Beach, Feel Good, Roadtrip, Cloudgazing

Like Artists: Jenny Lewis, Rilo Kiley, Camera Obscura, Ingrid Michaelson, Feist, Kate Nash, the bird and the bee, Belle and Sebastian, Regina Spektor, The Shins, Feist, Cat Power, Andrew Bird, Neko Cas

TRACKLIST:
Vinyl – Side A
1. Darlin’
2. Wouldn’t It Be Nice
3. Til I Die
4. Deidre
5. Melt Away
6. Good To My Baby
7. Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)

Vinyl – Side B
8. Don’t Worry Baby
9. This Whole World
10. Kiss Me, Baby
11. Do It Again
12. Heads You Win, Tails I Lose
13. Please Let Me Wonder
14. Meant For You

Band Quote –

In the spring of 2020, we started a list of our favourite Brian songs – a very long list.

We chose songs without any regard to their chart performance. The obscure ones hit us just as hard as the more popular songs – and all are ripe for re-imagining, re-interpreting and re-inventing.

Brian writes songs of beauty and loneliness and vulnerability better than anyone – and by sequencing them next to popular songs of confidence and love and fun – it creates a more complete picture of life on earth.

- Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward.

Talking Points:

Best known for highly stylised, indie-pop concept projects, with Melt Away: A Tribute to Brian Wilson, She & Him found their inspirational sweet spot.

The pair’s lush arrangements and sparkling musicality flawlessly complements Brian Wilson 60’s era southern-California sounds and prove these timeless songs have as much to say today as they ever did.

Deschanel and Ward have a history and personal relationship with Brian Wilson.

‘Twee’ style/culture (“excessively or affectedly quaint, pretty, or sentimental”, originally peaking in the late 2000’s) is making a comeback.