The grammatical inequality in the band name She & Him is significant, even if it's a joke or a mistake: The female with the nominative pronoun is Zooey Deschanel, the actress whose credits include Elf, All the Real Girls, and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. The male with the objective pronoun is Matt Ward, the John Fahey and Hank Williams acolyte who in eight years has risen from indie label obscurity to, arguably, the three or four spot in the active Merge Records rotation. Both Deschanel and Ward have their own successful careers, but on Volume One-- the first offering from their new collaborative band She & Him-- him is less than she. Although Ward produced the record and closet songwriter Deschanel only started sharing her songs at his request, the album succeeds mostly because those songs feel like familiar AM radio classics and because her voice offers instant emotional empathy. Ward's tasteful playing and sparse arrangements just serve to make something good that much better.

She also narrates the 11 songs here, all about her changing relations to an anonymous him: On the charming "Sentimental Heart", she's wrecked, crying on the floor, lonely without him. One song later during "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?", she's sitting on the shelf, playfully waiting for him to come over. On the petulant "Take It Back", she doesn't want to be loved, fooled, or wooed by him. One song later during "I Was Made for You", she's giddy over the smiling him in the street. The him in question changes throughout Volume One, but she relates to the masculine through a consistently naïve romanticism, whether it's riding a tandem bicycle alone on the somehow upbeat "Black Hole" or cheerfully telling girlfriends that love is a glorious but interminable conquest on "This Is Not a Test". Aside from two duets and obscurant backing vocals on one track, Ward serves as him only sonically, servicing the songs from the wings; thematically, Deschanel sings about a him that's not Ward at all.

But Ward and the team he gathered for two Portland, Ore., sessions in Fall 2006 and Winter 2007-- Norfolk & Western/Decemberists/M. Ward drummer Rachel Blumberg, Saddle Creek production mainstay Mike Mogis, Devotchka violinist Tom Hagerman-- are invaluable to Volume One. Deschanel writes old pop songs built around black-and-white, simplistic emotions and dotted with vintage sexual innuendo (see "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?" and "Black Hole"). Her precious delivery suggests Loretta Lynn or any number of jazz vocalists minus a bit of brio, and the band-- which either builds gradually into its walls of sound or keeps things spartan and pristine-- helps the songs make sense. Ward provides an anxious staccato string arrangement and a Mellotron hum on "Sentimental Heart", teasing an optimism that, like Deschanel's romanticism, is always denied. Above Mogis' plaintive steel sighs and Ward's indifferent acoustic waltz on "Change Is Hard", her fragility becomes personal and endearing. Blumberg's big drums and Ward's stuttering electric line offer a platform for her elation on "I Was Made For You", and when Ward trails her voice on "You Really Got a Hold on Me", he's the perfect complement, his voice the shadow behind her sunlight.

Deschanel is more convincing when she's on an extreme end of romance-- either losing it or being swept into it-- than when she's trying to rationalize it. She makes that mistake three times on Volume One. The other sense of disappointment here comes from the promise Volume One suggests but doesn't deliver: Deschanel's writing is too canny ("Why do you edit? Give me credit") and her voice too natural (listen for that Feist-like crack on "Change is Hard") to sit on the tribute shelf very long. Granted, the retro exuberance here will be what sells She & Him to those beyond the indie realm. Don't be surprised when Garrison Keillor jumps on board. But with this successful introduction and the admitted homage to influences it entails finished, Deschanel has a solid foundation for building her own classic sound. After all, she's a readymade star who's already found a pretty fantastic facilitator in him.