She & Him "Don't Look Back" Video Music Review

She & Him "Don't Look Back"

Video Music Review

By our guest blogger, Nick Hanover

I have quite the dilemma when it comes to quirky indie outfit She & Him. I love Zooey Deschanel and even though I occasionally doubt her acting range, I'll admit that the appearance of her in pretty much anything is enough to warm this cold heart. On the other hand, I loath M. Ward. I can't even explain why. Something about him just irks me (let's just go ahead and blame the ever-present sun glasses) and I've never been able to stomach any release he's gone near.

Until She & Him.

It helps that She & Him is a project that's mostly confined to updating the girl group sound of the '60s, a sound I happen to be completely enamored with. There's also that Zooey connection, what with her fronting the group and having a surprisingly tender, effective voice. And I have to confess that they've managed to lock down a pretty fascinating aesthetic as well, which is on prime display in their latest video "Don't Look Back."

Opening like an educational film from the 1960's about the "sound of tomorrow," "Don't Look Back" is incredibly stylish in its own throwback way, even managing to avoid otherwise inevitable "Mad Men" comparisons by sticking to the more quaint, wholesome end of that particular picture. The instrument collector geek in me also gets excited by the cameo from a Vox Continental organ (though it's weirdly used here as an electric piano).

Sure, at times it looks like a hip Target commercial, and it feels a little gimmicky and there's that slight rip on Herbie Hancock's "Rock-It" video going on for discernible reason. But I dare you to go watch it and not come out warmed. If you do manage to do that, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest it's just your deep seated fear of hipsters doing that to you and you've inadvertently lumped this duo in with that lot. Hell, it even has jetpacks. What's not to love?

Now, I just need to find some way to replace M. Ward with myself.

View the video below. Thoughts?