She & Him make pop light and breezy

Some records practically scream, "We've suffered for our art, now it's your turn" -- they make you painfully aware of every last drop of blood, sweat and tears that went into them. Fortunately, "She & Him: Volume One" (Merge Records), by the duo of actress Zooey Deschanel and singer/songwriter M. Ward, is not such an album.

Winsome, casual, loose where it should be and tight where it has to be, "Volume One" is one of the most charming pop albums of the year. The most charming moment of all comes on a loopy Hawaiian-styled cover of the Beatles' "I Should Have Known Better." You can almost hear the grass skirts swaying as Ward hams his way through a verse, accompanied by audible snickers from Deschanel.

"I'll tell you what happened there," Deschanel says, calling from Los Angeles. "We had two mikes facing each other to sing, and Matt had his guitar on even though he wasn't playing it. And he dropped the guitar while singing, but he continued on and did such a good job covering it up, you can't even tell. But me, not so much because you can hear me laughing."

The light, breezy pop of "Volume One" practically sparkles with good cheer. Centered on Deschanel's personable girl-next-door voice, the music references ornate Beach Boys-style pop, girl-group balladry, Carole King's Brill Building soul and other tasteful signposts. It helps that, unlike Scarlett Johansson's recent Tom Waits covers collection, Deschanel displays vocal ability equal to her taste.

For his part, Ward puts on a virtuosic display with his production and arrangements. But he did not perform the album's most distinctive nonvocal bit. That would be the solo on "This Is Not a Test," which sounds like a kazoo.

"Nope," Deschanel says, "that's just mouth trumpet by me. When we were in the studio, we kept thinking about instruments we wished we had but didn't. And I said, 'This one would be great with a trumpet part,' humming that part full-force. 'You should just go do that,' Matt said. 'No, that's crazy!' 'I like it. Do it.' So I did."

Deschanel is still best-known as an actress, so it's not surprising that her partnership with Ward began over a movie. They met while working on a song for the soundtrack to 2006's "The Go-Getter," covering Richard and Linda Thompson's "When I Get to the Border."

They're a seemingly odd match. Deschanel has starred in movies large and small, from "Almost Famous" and Will Ferrell's "Elf" to the 2003 cult hit "All the Real Girls." Ward is a singer/songwriter known for brooding, quirky late-night noir-folk. But they hit it off and discovered they both loved a lot of the same old records.

Deschanel told Ward she had written and recorded a bunch of songs, which Ward said he wanted to hear. With great trepidation, she sent some music his way and crossed her fingers.

"He said afterward he would've told me if he didn't like my songs, and he's a pretty honest guy," Deschanel says. "I might have played one or two songs here and there for friends and family. But almost no one had heard a lot of the stuff I'd recorded. So I was terrified. I'm happy he wanted to work on them."

They set up shop in a studio in Ward's hometown of Portland, Ore., settling on a 13-song tracklist -- 10 of Deschanel's originals and three covers (Smokey Robinson's "You Really Got a Hold on Me," the gospel standard "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" plus the Beatles song). Recording took place in late 2006 and 2007. But it was not a leisurely process because Deschanel's film career was taking off like a rocket.

In two years of virtually nonstop work, Deschanel has racked up credits including "Failure to Launch," "Weeds," "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" and M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening." Among her upcoming films is the Jim Carrey comedy "Yes Man," directed by old Triangle hand Peyton Reed.

"I'm really tired, actually," Deschanel says of her demanding schedule. "When I started doing this record, it was so much fun. I even thought, 'Maybe I'll quit acting.' But then I got an interesting job and it was, 'O.K., maybe I'll do one more movie.' Then it was, 'I kind of like this, too, and it's still fun, so I'll keep doing it.' And it's been job after job with no break. Then the album came out and it was press and touring weekends."

"Volume One" turned out to be a surprising commercial as well as critical success, debuting at No. 71 on the Billboard album charts this spring -- Durham-based Merge's best chart showing of 2008, and also 75 spots higher than Ward has ever achieved on his own. A second volume seems inevitable, so Deschanel won't be able to slow down anytime soon. There are worse problems to have, of course.

"I'm not complaining because it's been amazing to have both these very satisfying and fun things at the same time doing so great," she says. "I'm not gonna argue with it. I keep getting fun acting jobs, and here's this album that's completely an expression of myself. That's the first time I've ever had the ability to put out something that's actually me. It's such a blessing, I feel so lucky. I'm tired, but it's OK."