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 Oh, Natalie Portman: Such a blessing and a curse. When she played “New Slang” for Zach Braff in Garden State and announced “The Shins will change your life,” she both propelled the New Mexico quartet into indie-rock infamy (making them—through the combined sales of their 2001 debut Oh, Inverted World and 2003’s Chutes Too Narrow—Sub Pop’s biggest-selling act since Nirvana) and set the expectations for their next record unfeasibly high. Perhaps for this reason, the songs on Wincing The Night Away are more akin to the chiming, heart-fluttering surrealism of “New Slang” than to any of the more acoustic and spare tracks on Chutes. And while they might be less immediate, they are ultimately more indelible. Wincing isn’t so much a departure as it is an all-out augmentation, taking the best things about The Shins and amplifying them: the sunny, impeccably crafted tra-la-la pop songwriting that’s always slightly spooky and off-kilter; the band’s propensity to fill the nooks and crannies of a song with hooks just as compelling as the chorus; and James Mercer’s knack for packing untold emotional resonance into even the slightest vocal key change. Opener “Sleeping Lessons” wafts in on a delicate keyboard arpeggio, then explodes into a squall of lickety-split galloping guitars and Mercer’s plaintive, liberating, “You’re not obliged to swallow anything you despise”....full text |
| Pitchfork |
| While indie rock has embraced grander and more elaborate productions, the Shins have remained unlikely champions of uncertainty and understatement. Unlike many of their meteorically successful indie peers, the Shins don't want to change your life-- and that's a good thing, because the band's biggest strength is an uncanny gift for conjuring a deep, vivid, and palpable sense of the familiar. Many of the Shins' best songs evoke a feeling of comfort and closeness that's immediately recognizable but rarely experienced-- intimacy is the band's best weapon, amplifying the subtle ebbs and flows of their music so that the slightest injection of unease or melancholy hits with remarkable force. On their third Sub Pop full-length, Wincing the Night Away, the Shins take a decisive but wobbly step out of their comfort zone, and in doing so sacrifice much of this musical/emotional proximity effect. While the band has taken a good deal of criticism for sounding "too average" or "boring," the ill-suited sonic punch of Wincing the Night Away throws the singular strengths of their previous work into stark relief. The almost-live sounding Chutes Too Narrow left plenty of room for singer James Mercer's excellent vocals to guide its songs both melodically and rhythmically. But on Wincing, too-loud drums and bass distract not only from the elegant movement of Mercer's melodies, but from the delicate harmonic tensions that underlie them....full text |
| Stylusmagazine |
| Let’s just get it out of the way: The Shins may have helped bridge the gap between shy indie boys and mildly adventurous sorority girls, but you probably didn’t leave your first experience with them an altered beast unless it led directly to you getting laid. Or you are Zach Braff. Different names for the same thing, so said Death Cab. It’s been very weird since then. The erstwhile members of Flake Music made endlessly listenable half-hours of mixtape darts, but in terms of indie bands readily available at Best Buy that I’d first describe as “life-changing,” the Shins probably rank a little outside the Power 16 and somewhere in the pack of “other receiving votes” between New Pornographers and the Clientele. Even the band itself seemed wearied by unfounded expectations: the crowds would get larger but the sound didn’t, leaving them mousy and underwhelming in the spotlight. Seeing the Shins headline a show made you feel as if they’ve already maxed out their sustainable fanbase....full text |
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