Wincing The Night Away

%%header%%

%%message%%

Just when you thought the bounds had been set… The Shins go and reinvent it all again; enter 'Wincing The Night Away', The Shins' third and best album to date.

Recorded over time with veteran engineer Joe Chiccarelli (Beck, U2) – 'Wincing The Night Away' is a whole new animal. It is the sound of a band growing up and out. Singer/guitarist James 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. 'Sea Legs' pairs a hip-hop (yes, hip-hop) beat with lush melodic lines and searing guitars.

Elsewhere, the band toys with tweaked-out piano steeped in psychedelic 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 (first single from the release, 'Phantom Limb').

Finally, 'Turn on Me', 'Girl Sailor' and 'Australia' are the lilting, exhilarating, rollicking, rock-solid pop songs we’ve all come to covet from The Shins.