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The Shins
Wincing The Night Away
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Wincing The Night Away
The Shins/Wincing The Night Away (Sub Pop Records) $13/Compact Disc, LP
When we're honest with ourselves we can admit to harboring expectations, especially for those we take for granted. Which is how the bar got set high for The Shins and its first full-length album in four years, Wincing The Night Away.
Many of us discovered The Shins in the late 90s as the group emerged from the Albuquerque rock-and-roll underground.
We were impressed. When The Shins signed with Sub Pop Records and released two albums, that hooked others. More fans
were generated when music of The Shins was featured in the movie "Garden State." However we arrived as a fan of The
Shins, waiting four years for the band to create a new album felt too long. The wait conjured criticism and an
apprehension that the band had stagnated. In reality, they tried ever so hard to not let anybody down. So it's no
surprise that the long-awaited album Wincing The Night Away has created quite a buzz. Pundits and bloggers
have flocked to weigh in on the release. I pored over the reviews, previews and interviews, of which there is no
shortage. The critics compare Wincing the Night Away with Chutes too Narrow and Oh, Inverted
World, which is like comparing red apples to green apples - similar but with vastly different flavors.
In comparison to The Shins' first releases, Wincing the Night Away is more complex, layered and displays a
peculiar maturity. Peculiar because it seems The Shins seek to surprise those who love them. The group has
unmistakably grown and evolved, expanding on a love of pop music and tight musical arrangements to a more open, more
epic and a bit more experimental sound.
I cannot say I love the whole album. The hyped "Red Rabbits" arrives stale, lacking the moving quality I love in
music. "Girl Sailor," despite its poppy riff, sounds a bit dull and over produced. The standout single, "Phantom
Limb," is a super-clean song with a catchy chorus and refrain that, unfortunately, I doubt will hold on as memorable.
At some times frontman and lead singer James Mercer's lyrical musings are taken too far and become labored.
Wincing the Night Away opens with two of its finest songs, "Sleeping Lessons" and "Australia." "Sleeping
Lessons" begins eerily with Mercer's vocals and poetic prose spilling over Marty Crandall's keyboards and
synthesizer. In them the author reveals his insomniac tendencies. From its subdued start, "Sleeping Lessons" switches
gears from ambience to rock-and-roll. Dave Hernandez's raging guitar preludes and accompanies the third stanza: Just
put yourself in my new hooves/And see that I do what I do/Because the old guard still offend/Their pudgy hearts and
slimy hands/They've got nothing left on which we depend/So enlist every ounce of your bright blood/And off with their
heads/Jump from the hook/You're not obliged to swallow anything you despise. I read the lyric as a reflection of an
external pressure put on a heart full of worry and fear of failure.
"Australia" emerges from a silence and a quick yelp. Jesse Sandoval provides a steady drumbeat to drive its opening.
Mercer's voice sounds brilliant and gives the album one of its finest choruses. I am familiar with the conversation
made in the lyrics, as I've had it with myself many times on late Friday nights after a few drinks gives me the
confidence to wax philosophical. We come in doing cartwheels/We all crawl out by ourselves/And your shape on the
dance floor/Will have me thinking such filth I'll gouge out my eyes/You'll be dammed to be one of us, girl/Faced with
the dodo's conundrum/I felt like I could just fly/But nothing happened every time I tried.
My favorite track is "Sea Legs," a song that stands in contrast to the prototypical Shins song, which is tight, poppy
and direct. "Sea Legs" has an open quality, best described by a line from its chorus: There'll be no time to stall or
protocol to hem us in. "Sea Legs" carries on for a full five-and-a-half minutes, nearly double the average
three-minute regular. "Sea Legs" wraps up with a tasty jam that slowly fades to silence.
here seems no possible way The Shins will fade any time soon. Wincing the Night Away, while not a perfect
work, stands as proof that The Shins continue to grow artistically without letting commercial success stand in its
way - and can meet our expectations.
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