The Shins - Wincing the night away

The third Shins album came out at the beginning of the year, despite being finished in time for a Christmas release. Aparantly, Sub Pop's decision not to release until January has alienated the band who spent an awful long time in the studio with this one. As a result, somehow, an early taster of the album seeped out onto the internet anyway.

The album is a beauty of course. It is the Shins after all, and I'll lay my cards on the table, I think this band are doing something extremely special. Their blend of sunny pop music, against slightly quirky rhythms (they do a LOT of waltzes), and, with the densest lyrics, combine to a blend that oddly never really hits you first time you hear it but instead grows and grows on you, seeping into your brain as you find yourself hearing more and more of the charm and more snatches of the lyrics each time.

The big question for fans like me, however, was would it be anywhere near as good as the first two albums, "Oh, Inverted WOrld" and "Chutes too Narrow".

First lets just say that it is a wonderful record, but at the moment I've still not had one of those moments when I think it is better than the previous one. That may still come though, as anything can happen with a Shins record. Just at this moment I'd like a companion record of the band doing it live, or James playing all the songs on an accoustic.

What do they sound like? Sunny melodic guitar pop with a slightly high pitched vocal and lovely embellishments. On this record the drums are mixed well to the fore, which can get in the way a little to begin with, and one or two tracks sound like experimental dance with a Shins song laid over.

Since it's the Shins, it's worth considering track by track.

1. Sleeping Lessons - This is a song designed to start an album. No surprise since every album of theirs seems to start with something designed for purpose and closes with something sombre and profound. The start and close tracks on "Chutes too narrow" are almost incredibly apposite for their position, and it's this attention to detail that singles the band out. Their records never clock in at over 45 minutes, yet they don't waste a moment of your time, every tiny section is crafted with some musical intent.

This one starts quietly, and gradually builds to a thundering train with guitars and pounding drums taking you through the rush hour. It has a defiant lyric, too, with "you're not obliged to swallow anything you despise" typifying. As throughout the album, too, the singing dominates.

2. Australia - A single and well worthy of chart success has a lovely music hall feel without being dated, just a great carries-you-on rhythm and wierd lyrics: "faced with the Dodo's conundrum - I felt like I could just fly" returns at the end as "faced with the androids conundrum - I felt like I could just cry"... which may give you a flavour of Anglophile Mercer's lyrical style.

3. Pam Berry - One of those weird interludes. I sometimes think they are influenced by Guided by Voices on these strange little numbers... they have a transience that is so evocative.

4. Phantom Limb - however, is an absolutely wonderful single. Perfect sunny guitar pop, and a melodic delight, James Mercer's singing is marvellous and the song features some lovely swooning backing vocals too... what more can you ask?

Dave Hernandez guitar solos, and Marty's keyboard flourishes also feature throughout the album, as you may expect, but they are less quirky than before and if the album has a weakness it is that at times it feels a little overprofessional, perhaps slightly overproduced, perhaps a little too much electronic wizardry overlaying some fine songs.

It's hard to escape the impresion though that the Shins are the perfect geek indie pop band, marvellous tunes with obscure but rewarding lyrical tales.

5. Sealegs - however, is just plain odd, starts with a sort of breakbeat but turns into something reminiscent of Morrissey. What to say, it's a grower, and sounds very different live with just the guitar band sound. On the album it is cold, urban and atmospheric.

6. Red Rabbits - is the quietest and prettiest track, quite poetic, very quirky and was an early favourite though my daughter would point out the backing track is a dead ringer for the music in Mr Burps Bubble Works at Chessington!!! - (true story). Still has fine lyrics though:- "born on the desert shore you've the deepest thirst, and you came to my sweet shore to indulge it"

7. Turn on Me - a classic pop song starts with a cut from "And then I kissed Her" by the Beach Boys, and that little theme recurs throughout. It's lovely though, despite the tribute.
8. Black Wave is haunting, ghostly, like a number of earlier song sphagnum esplanade, and perhaps James owes another debt to Robert Pollard, though the band's playing and Mercer's lyrics and singing far outshine their influence.

9. Spilt Needles - crisp assertive drumming take over to jar you but again it's propulsive (Wire might say "motorik") and drives the song headlong. Again nthe song features a lot of electronic effects and little guitar loveliness, which I personally regret, but still has time for the album's most curious image"its like I'm perched on the handlebars of a blind man's bike"

10. Girl Sailor - definitely the best song. I first heard this on a live bootleg last year and to an entirely different rhythm. The new setting has a 50's flavour and a rolling-yet-jerky drum pattern, but is still discernably a guitar band playing a slowish number, and leads up to a delightful half-melancholic half-nostalgic guitar interlude from Dave Hernandez.

It is such a wonderful song though, resuming one of James' recurring images of sailing a ship through life. All in all one of the shins greatest songs - very beautiful and understated.

11. A Comet Appears - sorry, reflective, a study in depression, and a reflection on life's ironies. Not James, but James-as-someone else... if you know who I'd love to hear. The guitar parts here are devastating, proving that an otherwise sunny and positive band, the Shins do sorrow very well indeed.

As an album, unbearably beautiful at times, dark at others... definitely a mile above the rest and another chapter in the unstoppable rise of the Shins, surely the finest band working today.