Categories : Music Reviews, Rock + Pop.
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Rating: 4/5 Released: January 23, 2007 Reviewer: Nathan Atnikov |
When The Shins were given their now famous shout out in Garden State (which I feel socially obliged to mention), it brought everyone’s best-kept secret out in the open. The exuberant Chutes Too Narrow turned the soft-spoken Portland, Oregon natives into pop sensations, leaving them with a problem they’d never had to deal with before: how do you go about making an album that sounds like The Shins?
Wincing the Night Away is their answer and, in its own way, not an answer at all. Sure, it sounds like The Shins – James Mercer’s vocals are unmistakeable – but the album is remarkable in its subtlety. Taking a step back from the pop bliss of Chutes, the Shins rediscover the joy of Beach Boys melody on ‘Phantom Limb’ and ‘Sleeping Lessons,’ while tackling a surprisingly hip-hop inspired beat on ‘Sea Legs.’
Wincing is the sound of a band settling comfortably into a life on the fringe of popular consciousness, knowing full well that they probably aren’t going to change your life. They never wanted to anyway.
Buy Wincing The Night Away from iTunes >> 
