Never Wanted Your Love is a preview of She & Him’s third album appropriately titled Volume 3.
Zooey Deschanel’s collaboration with M.Ward is poppy and restrained, sophisticated and simple. It could be an updated Lemmon Sisters ditty, without the other two sisters. If you could feel good about a romance gone bad, this would be the song for it. Deschanel has been busy elsewhere, in TV and advertising, but her music has not seemed to mind. A little Katy Perry (without the oversaturation), a little Bette Middler and a little Katrina and the Waves all rolled into one dynamic package, the duo is earnest in its retro sincerity and hip references. Ward handles the musical arranging, skillfully so that his partner’s vocals are in the perfect pitch range to allow the feel-goodness to shine through.
She & Him are past the novelty phase and well into a sophomore career (Christmas albums don’t really count), with enough decent material to be eligible for station playlists and, if not a concert headliner yet, surely not still an opening act.
Merge Records is promoting a music video for this single and the whole album drops on May 7th. It will be a mix of covers and guest artists with original work.
