I like the Shins. There...I said it. They are on that awkward 3rd CD thing that all bands that live that long must go through. It is a historically painful one because unlike the forgivable sophomore slump the third CD if bad, kills careers so there is a tendency to try to hard, be too clever and not do anything that is both cohesive and interesting. There is normally no reason to combine bouzakki, Gregorian chanting and the sounds of Sigma Chi fraternities boys breaking wind but bands have tried this approach and it is a mess.
The Shins have not fallen over this obvious stumbling block. They have some unusual songs and some instrumentation that is...interesting. A few songs like “Split Needles” sound more like “fingernails on chalkboard” with synth and James Mercers voice. As I see it the band IS Mercers voice. The songs are all tuneful and nonsensical enough to be open to any interpretation if you can indeed figure out what Mercer is singing about at all. All that negative stuff having been said, what a voice he has and there are some pop gems on this one.
The first cut “Sleeping Lessons” is of the indecipherable/over wrought genre. Skip it. Moving to the song “Australia”, it compared reasonably with anything on “Chutes Too Narrow” and the following song Pam Berry though a little mopey has a nice edgy cello which makes you think of teen angst and suicide and everything that is wonderful. The fourth song “Phantom Limb” is a strict winner and was released last fall as “THE SINGLE”. It is once again just sweet, well constructed pop that tunefully wraps around Mercers lilting disaffected voice....beautiful.
The CD does have more production and instrumentation the Chutes but holds up to listening over and over again and I have had it as a sound track for the last few days in my office and...well...you can work to it. What else can a boy ask for? At this early date it is the Album of the Year. Buy it. Smile. Be happy. It receives 8 Slingers out of ten. High praise indeed.
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