THE SHINS
Wincing the Night Away
Sub Pop
· Indie rock for dummies. The Shins try to shed Garden State with their third release.
I didn't much care for Garden State until the scene in which Natalie Portman plays The Shins's "New Slang" on her headphones to Zach Braff when they first meet, promising the song will change his life. From that minute onward, I despised it, a film catering to the indie rock generation just as badly as the insufferable Sideways catered to the 40-something crowd who were after one last fling. Still, the song lived on despite the association. If James Mercer never writes another song, he's still got "New Slang" on his CV, and that's a lot more than most of us can hope for.
With Wincing the Night Away, the other shoe finally drops. Whereas both Oh Inverted World and Chutes Too Narrow seemingly came out of nowhere, a perfectly Americanized synthesis of what made Ray Davies and The Kinks so great, Wincing the Night Away jumps out of the gate sounding like all the bands The Shins previously provided perfect escape from. Lead-off single "Phantom Limb" has a nice mournful minor-key melody going on, but it's wrapped up in production more befitting U2 than Portman's favourite band. "Sea Legs" plays with loops and samples that don't much work at all – the type of outtake Beck would throw away.
Artists move on and develop. Ray Davies transformed The Kinks from British Invasion upstarts into the blues rockers of Lola and Muswell Hillbillies. So, no knock on The Shins for trying out a few new directions and seeing what fits. The important thing to remember, however, is once the melodies and tunes are gone, there's not really that much left to take in beyond window dressing and studio tricks.
Mercer promises, "You're not obliged to swallow anything you despise," which is either the sign of a nice boyfriend (fair enough) or just early acceptance that many of those who've stood proud and tall behind The Shins from the beginning might soon be taking off for greener pastures, and he kind of knows it.
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