"We like the same things and I like your style"

My heart always sinks when I hear that an actor has plans to move into the world of music. David Hasselhoff, William Shatner and Tracy Shaw from Coronation Street spring immediately (and horrifyingly) to mind. Celebrity duets are another terrible thing. I'm still trying to forget ever having witnessed Hylda Baker and Arthur Mullard destroying You're the One That I Want (you can view clips of it here if you absolutely must, but I really wouldn't recommend it).
So I sighed and rolled my eyes when I heard that indie flick queen Zooey Deschanel was making a record with indie-folk chappie M. Ward under the name She & Him.
I've never really taken to M. Ward, despite him having worked with a whole host of artists I love (Beth Orton, Jenny Lewis and My Morning Jacket for a start), so I was shocked when I heard the song below, which Merge Records have made available to download. It's superb! Deschanel sounds great and it has a certain thrillingness about it, something that often seemed to be missing from Matt Ward's solo stuff for me.

She & Him - Why Do You Let Me Stay Here? mp3 (right click and save as)

The She & Him debut album, cunningly entitled Volume One, was released yesterday and you can buy it on CD or as an mp3 or FLAC download from the Merge shop.

You can stream most of Volume One at their myspace page and that should give you an idea of the variety of genres that She & Him cover. You've got the 60s girl group style harmonies of I Was Made For You (Ronnie Spector, anyone?), and the yearning, swooning I Thought I Saw Your Face Today, complete with lovely whistling break. And that's just my absolute favourites - the rest is pretty good too. At this rate I might just conquer my phobia of singing actors and celebrity duets!