She & Him announce Brian Wilson tribute album and share Beach Boys cover

She & Him have announced a new album, ‘Melt Away: A Tribute To Brian Wilson‘, and shared the first taster from the record, ‘Darlin’’.

The duo, comprising M. Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel, will release their album of classic covers written by the Beach Boys founder on July 22 via Fantasy Records. You can pre-order it here.

Wilson even features on a new version of ‘Do It Again’ on the record.

The band have shared a goofy video for their cover of ‘Darlin” today (May 18), which is originally taken from The Beach Boys’ 1967 album ‘Wild Honey’ – you can view it below. They shared the cover previously in 2020.

“In the spring of 2020, we started a list of our favourite Brian songs – a very long list,” the duo explained in a statement. “We chose songs without any regard to their chart performance. The obscure ones hit us just as hard as the more popular songs – and all are ripe for re-imagining, re-interpreting, and re-inventing.

“Brian writes songs of beauty and loneliness and vulnerability better than anyone – and by sequencing them next to popular songs of confidence and love and fun, it creates a more complete picture of life on earth.”

Wilson added: “Zooey and Matt did such mind-blowing versions of our songs. The harmonies are beautiful and right on. I love this record!”

The tracklisting for ‘Melt Away: A Tribute To Brian Wilson’ is:

1. ‘Darlin”
2. ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’
3. ‘Til I Die’
4. ‘Deirdre’
5. ‘Melt Away’
6. ‘Good To My Baby’
7. ‘Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)’
8. ‘Don’t Worry Baby’
9. ‘This Whole World’
10. ‘Kiss Me, Baby’
11. ‘Do It Again’ ft. Brian Wilson
12. ‘Heads You Win, Tails I Lose’
13. ‘Please Let Me Wonder’
14. ‘Meant For You’

She & Him are set to embark on a series of US tour dates next month in support of the album, which kicks off in Denver, Colorado on June 13 with stops in Utah, California, Oregon, Washington, and Vancouver.

The tour makes a stop in Los Angeles on June 25, before its final September stop in Vienna, Virginia. Tickets for the shows are available here.

She & Him’s most recent tour was for their holiday albums, ‘A Very She & Him Christmas’ and ‘Christmas Party’, in 2019.

Marilyn Wilson-Rutherford, the first wife of the Beach Boys co-founder, recently sued the musician over a deal he recently struck for the royalties of a number of Beach Boys songs.

Wilson agreed to a reported $50million (£38.1million) deal with Universal Music Publishing Group in relation to his song catalogue back in December, though the deal was not announced at the time.