A Week With The Shins' "Wincing The Night Away": Day 2

10 February 2007
tell your friends... tell your friends...

Wors by Jacob Henneman // Illustration by Abigail Bruley

January 23, 2007 could very well have bankrupted many music fans. With releases by about a dozen of giants (Deerhoof, Damon Albarn & friends, Of Montreal, and on and on), the Shins’ new release jumped off the page from the rest of those acts. They must be doing something right. As one of the main bands transcending the gates that keep indie music separate from the mainstream listening public, you have to keep listeners on their toes and entertained. You have to open that gate to let the herd in because in this business there are no sheep dogs frothing at the mouth with loyalty, no one to coax the masses in from the comfort of the fields.

The Shins understand this. Explained right there in my digital insert: “To play music for a long time, you have to surprise the people that love you – while also surprising yourself.” Enter Wincing the Night Away.

This album is spilling over with surprises. Starting with, of course, Mercer’s infrequently used vocabulary. A line from “Red Rabbits” reads like it should have been in a Lewis Carroll novel: “Out of the gunnysack fall red rabbits/Into the crucible to be rendered an emulsion.” Then there are the instrumental touches which set it all off. There’s the two-minute jam session at the end of “Sea Legs,” which intertwines various synth and guitar lines to a perfect match, the instrumentation on “A Comet Appears,” which includes lap steel, French horn, hammered dulcimer, and bouzouki, or the banjo that makes its way into the last chorus of “Australia.”

It’s very clear through the first few listens exactly why this album was so anticipated. There are hundreds of people out there who can write amazing songs, but not all have the ability to give the listener the gift of surprise. To the casual fan, this will once again be another work of the most gifted acts producing concise pop gems, but it is clear that more went into this album, and all of their music, than simply writing a good song. The attention to detail is astounding, and appreciated.

With Wincing, the herd will be increasing, the gate may have to be expanded.

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