Some three years after being fortuitously name-dropped in the surprisingly successful film “Garden State,” and being subsequently featured on the picture’s sleeper-hit soundtrack, the Shins have found themselves settled in the strange area between small-label success and mainstream celebrity.
The band’s third studio release, “Wincing the Night Away,” is being carefully critiqued by fans and critics alike. All are anxious to see whether the Shins can become a noteworthy presence in mainstream music while retaining the distinct artistic sensibilities that made James Mercer’s band so endearing in the first place.
Those hoping for a second “Chutes Too Narrow,” however, be forewarned: “Wincing the Night Away” is easily the band’s most experimental record to date. Though the album as a whole preserves elements of the unmistakable Shins sound, the band’s melodies and Mercer’s distinctive, structural stylings, represent a fairly substantial creative departure from the work of the band to date.
The album opens with the anthemic “Sleeping Lessons,” where keyboards and reverb-laden vocals announce the progressive approach adopted for the album. The song is well-situated and establishes the reliance on studio-effect intricacies that gets reasserted throughout the record.
That emphasis on electronica, though, seems at times ill-suited. “Sea Legs,” for example, struggles to find its identity amidst its mess of a backbeat. “Phantom Limb,” “Girl Sailor” and “Turn on Me” stand as the album’s strongest tracks.
But inhabiting the area in between, a cross-mix of the band’s old guitar-pop aesthetic and the new concentration on electronic composition, are songs like “Black Wave,” “Spilt Needles” and “Red Rabbit.” All fantastic recordings, whose gauzy, textured arrangements toe the line of progressive rock brilliance. Those triumphs of tunes are what makes this experimental album a successful one.
If this were any other band’s album, “Wincing the Night Away” would be among the year’s most celebrated releases.
The indie scenesters who spent long summers listening to the Shins’ first two records on repeat however, will find it difficult to reconcile the band’s new direction with memories of those albums past.
The record is doomed to be maligned in certain circles by those who miss the lithe and lo-fi Shins they have come to know and love. Here’s to hoping such criticisms are cast aside sooner rather than later. It is the rare band that tries to evolve artistically even at the height of its popularity. Kudos to the Shins for taking risks, and for releasing “Wincing the Night Away,” an album that is anything but cringe-worthy.
