Wincing the Night Away
To play music for a long time, you have to surprise the people that love you—while also surprising yourself. Recorded in singer/guitarist James Mercer’s basement studio, Phil Ek’s Seattle digs, and in Oregon City with veteran producer Joe Chiccarelli (Beck, U2), Wincing the Night Away is The Shins’ third full-length album. It’s also the sound of a band growing up and out. Mercer’s infectious, indelible melodic style is still at the core, and unfaltering. But anything can happen around it—and in this case, it does. While the vocals channel the spirit of Morrissey, “Sea Legs” pairs a loping hip-hop beat with lush melody and searing guitars. Elsewhere the band toys with tweaked-out, liquid piano steeped in kaleidoscopic strings (“Red Rabbit”); fractured synth samples (“Spilt Needles”); gauzy, arpeggiated keyboards cloaking thunderous anthems (“Sleeping Lessons”); and, taking cues from early Jesus and Mary Chain albums, sweeping, fuzz-toned epics (“Phantom Limb”). Finally, “Turn on Me,” “Girl Sailor” and “Australia” are the lilting, thrilling, rollicking, rock-solid pop songs we’ve all come to covet from The Shins. Consider yourself surprised.
James Mercer & co. aim to deflect the inevitable Brafflash by crafting a more texturally diverse record than their outstanding, if uncomplicated, previous outings.
Success can be a bad break for some rock bands, especially those that prefer scribbling in the margins, unobtrusive and unassuming. The Shins' debut album, Oh, Inverted World, was a determinedly small-time affair, working in the muted watercolors of '60s British Invasion pop and cosmic Americana, but the follow-up, Chu…
Check out our album review of Artist's Wincing The Night Away on Rolling Stone.com.
The Shins experiment with their trademark sound without sacrificing any of their peerless melodicism.
James Mercer’s wrestles with insomnia have been widely publicized ever since his band, the Shins, grew popular enough that people became interested in...