Indie-movie princess meets indie-rock prince in this collaboration between Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward, featuring a bland name and even blander album title. Luckily, they're the most awkward things about this surprisingly rewarding collection of dusky, mesquite-flavored torch songs. She and Him ducks the celeb-novelty/"Return of Bruno" thing thanks mostly to Deschanel, who penned nine of the album's 11 tracks and spends much of it channeling Neko Case in a voice that's just fine, if occasionally (though endearingly) rough. It's best heard on the wonderfully brittle "Change Is Hard" and a slow, sexy take on the Miracles' "You Really Gotta Hold on Me." And if Ward knows anything, it's how to work up spare frontier shuffles, all covered in echoing dobro and dust. She and Him feels like a class project Ward and Deschanel get to do because they're famous, but "Volume One" is a fine use of the principals' privileges. —Jeff Vrabel