The Shins - Wincing the Night Away

Die-hard fans of The Shins, the New Mexico indie rock gods who hit it big with their 2001 debut, Oh, Inverted World, and followed up with, Chutes Too Narrow two years later, but best known for their musical appearances in Zack Braff’s independent hit, Garden State, have said that their new album, Wincing the Night Away, is a disappointment. Fair point, to an extent. Wincing is nowhere near the genius of Chutes or the freshness of Inverted World. To that end, I say to all the disappointed Shins fans, what were you expecting, another Chutes II? Get over yourselves.

What band members James Mercer (lead singer, songwriter, guitarist) , Martin Crandall (bassist) , Dave Hernandez (bassist/guitarist) , and Jesse Sandoval (drummer) have lost in the first two albums, they have gained in developing a new sound that pays off in the long run. Take the opening song in the album, Sleeping Lessons, a triumph of originality, where the band experiments with psychedelic Hawaiian tones, a minute of keyboard tones, and Mercer’s vocals. All the combining elements work like a hypnotic dream. Another example is Sea Legs, where hip-hop is fused with the indie pop/rock melodies. Again, the boldness in melodies works like a charm.

Each of the songs on Wincing are catchy and easy to listen to, but it’s Phantom Limb and A Comet Appears that are the gems of this rich album. In a interview with Billboard.com, Mercer described Phantom as “a hypothetical, fictional account of a young, lesbian couple in high school dealing with the shitty small town they live in,”. Mercer feels for the two girl’s problem of dealing with a town that doesn’t understand, let alone, accept them, and we do as well. The second gem is the last song on the album, A Comet Appears, where you can imagine Mercer picking up a guitar in the middle of the night, singing about all the sins he’s committed that still eat at him. It’s a haunting song that rivals New Slang, Caring is Creepy, and Know Your Onion as one of their best songs.

As I said earlier, Shins fans are pissed that they opted to experiment with a new sound, instead of returning with their lo-fi harmonies that made them a hit. To hell them, I say. In a summer music season that has it’s teeny-bopper crap anthem in Avril Lavigne’s Girlfriend, bound to have it’s overly played on the radio R&B hit, and equally nauseating emo rock bullshit, I’ll gladly take The Shins new sound over the sea of mediocrity any day of the week.



**** stars out of *****