Don’t Look Back

She & Him sound like they’re recording in the same room as you, and that closeness—the space they leave, the way M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel listen to each other without pushing—just works. Their Christmas albums especially have this oddly comforting quality, the shelter you find in something deliberately modest and warm. It’s one of those things where the more you listen the more you notice how much precision goes into sounding that relaxed.