The Shins - Wincing the Night Away Review
Posted by James Munson on 01.26.2007
Band that will “change your life” returns after four years with new LP. Natalie Portman is stoked.
Poor Shins. I’ll be the first to proclaim I had heard of the band long before the release of Garden State, but also the first to admit that my attention to them began to fade long after I had seen the movie. I know it is a pretty silly thing to get hung up about, especially since the band sold one of its songs to a McDonald’s commercial long before Zach Braff and company incorporated their music into the Garden State soundtrack. It pushed sales of their last album, 2003’s Chutes Too Narrow, to go gold and the band moved on to bigger venues (like selling out two nights at Chicago’s House of Blues to selling out one night at the more expansive Congress Theatre in less than a day).
Where does that leave them now? Four years later, The Shins just released their long-awaited follow-up Wincing the Night Away. While the niche that The Shins carved for themselves, which they have been perfecting since their debut Oh, Inverted World, is still present on the new LP, it appears as though they are out to prove something by slightly modifying their sound and bringing the energy level down a couple of notches. The Shins appear to have no interest in being the band that will save your life, and I don’t believe they have ever had that intention (I think Natalie Portman was just trying to illustrate her allegiance with the group the same way Seth Cohen did for Death Cab for Cutie on The OC).
Needless to say, this is conceivably the worst record The Shins have ever made. Now, when I say this, I maintain that it is also far superior to two-thirds of the crap that record labels put out in stores on a weekly basis. Only a few songs on this album are as commanding of the listener’s attention as “So Says I”, “Kissing the Lipless”, or “Know Your Onion”. The best tracks here are the ones that stick closest to The Shins’ indie-pop formula. “Sleeping Lessons” begins the album with an atmospheric quality before rocking ahead at about the two-and-a-half minute mark. “Australia” is an upbeat, peppy tune that would easily have been at home on the band’s two other LP’s.
Although first singles are supposed to be what grabs the listener’s initial attention (only to be later criticized as “just ok” next to other album tracks), “Phantom Limb” is a dreamy, sublime single that stands to be one of the best tunes on the album. Beginning with a fuzzy bass line similar to “Loose Translation” by The New Pornographers”, the song kicks into a Beach Boys-like harmony where singer James Mercer tells of “that foreign land with the sprayed-on tans/ and it all feels fine be it silk or slime.” Other standouts include “Sealegs”, which incorporates a bouncy guitar/drum machine-like loop not unlike The Flaming Lips’ “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots pt. 1” and the excellent stop/start percussion drive of “Split Needles”.
Unfortunately, the album begins to lose steam about halfway through due to the airy experimentation of songs like “Black Wave”, which could pass as a trippier and less interesting sequel to “New Slang”(complete with ooh’s and aah’s). In fact, the culprit that makes this record drag, and – keep in mind – The Shins take years to make an album that isn’t terribly long to begin with, is anti-climactic songs. The last track, “A Comet Appears”, is a sulky, yet beautiful, album closer (akin to “Those to Come” from their last record), but, ultimately, it feels a little bittersweet. This is primarily because it caps off a so-so record with the knowledge that The Shins won’t be ready to deliver a follow-up for at least another two to three years. And even then, will they try harder to be even more abstract or stick to what they know best? Only time will tell.
The 411: This is a difficult record for me to judge. After multiple listens, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s merely ok. It’s hardly essential, but worth it for the few tracks that rise above all of the others. All in all, it is a decent assemblage of indie-pop songs for those who have been waiting for them and a warning to those who yearn for another Oh, Inverted World or Chutes Too Narrow.
