M. Ward’s take on the songs of Billie Holiday’s Lady in Silk is as much a love letter to the formative relationships we forge with the musicians that have a hand in making us who we are as it is a love letter to Lady Day herself.

Serves our grounded era even if its lyrics sometimes stand in contrast to its aural prettiness.

More Rain is one of M. Ward's most sonically broad solo releases

This past March marked 10 years since the release of M. Ward’s Transfiguration of Vincent, yet from the flickering garage rock glow of its “Vincent O’Brien,” which remains the height of pop artistry, that fact isn’t readily apparent. This effect isn’t unique to Transfiguration, however. Owing to the peculiar character of his early work’s style if not his continued output, …

[xrr rating=2.75/5]One thing you can give Zooey Deschanel credit for, she’s a hard working woman. Regardless of your feelings about her status as a reigning icon of twee (a love it or hate it proposition if there ever was one), she doesn’t really ever seem to stop. Since She & Him’s debut Volume One dropped in 2008, it’s been followed …

M. Ward’s show at Chicago’s Vic Theatre opened slowly and subtly. The drummer and bass player stood alone on the dimly lit stage as they launched into the groove of “Post-War.” After the duo delicately established the tune’s mellow vibe, M. Ward entered to appropriately soft cheers from the crowd. As he sang the song’s opening lyric, “Don’t they love …

[xrr rating=3.75/5]In Portland, pretty much everyone has an M. Ward story. As one of our favorite sons, it’s not hard to get an “oh yeah, I saw him before…” “I heard he was recording just up the street” or in my case, “I bumped into him while I was saying hi to a friendly dog on the sidewalk” around here. …

Five years is an eternity in the life of a record. When coming up with this feature, the question the Spectrum Culture staff pondered was this: “How well do these albums play NOW!” Not five years ago, but how have they aged in our memories. While some acclaimed albums of ’06 remain strong on our list, some critically-lauded ones didn’t …

First of all, Portland loves cute and quirky. Living here, that almost seems self-explanatory, like having to state that Florida has swamps or New York City has a high sense of self-esteem in where it stands in relation to the other cities of the world. But Portland absolutely adores cheekiness, winsomeness and basically anything that can be described by adjectives …

She & Him Volume Two Rating: 3.0/5.0 Merge Records She & Him’s sophomore effort may have one of the most apt titles for an album ever- Volume Two picks up exactly where the duo of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward left off on Volume One. If I didn’t know better, I could even easily believe that the resulting 13 tracks …