Review: She & Him - Classics

One feels slightly guilty slagging off She & Him for being, well, so friggin’ nice, like kicking a puppy for being too goddamn puppy-like. Even so, the oozing, cloying sentiment and affectated melancholy of archly telegraphed, yet painfully earnest takes on “Unchained Melody” and “We’ll Meet Again” (is that a threat, or a promise?) more than warrant punitive, critical sanction with extreme prejudice. Perhaps more so than ever, She & Him are relentlessly and painfully fluffy, enough to make The Carpenters seem like proto-DSBM by comparison (hey, the inherent darkness beneath the white flight-era facade of Karen and Richard’s iconic suburban pop sound always had a slight hint of corpse paint covering the deceptively serrated edges, as far as I’m concerned).
Indeed, despite weighing down the proceedings with a 20-piece orchestra, Classics is so light and buoyant that it threatens to float away on the breeze. Too hollow to make even a superficial impact, She & Him fail to present a compelling reason to pay more than fleeting attention. Even worse than being awful, Classics projects what it ultimately inspires in the listener: an indifferent (aural) shrug (now with extra Peter Pan collar).
Download: She
2/5
By Matthew Elliot
