The Shins "Wincing the Night Away"
| Origin |  Albuquerque, New Mexico | |
| Genre(s) | Indie rock, Indie pop | |
| Years active | 1997–present | |
| Label(s) | Sub Pop Transgressive (distributing label) | |
| Website | ||
Now as many of you know I am not much of a fan of lo-fi, indie-rock bands. With that being said I have also promised not to show personal bias in my reviews of new music here. I have decided to start my reviews with a band that has been getting alot of buzz recently "The Shins" and their new album "Wincing the Night Away."
I must admit that the album starts very slowly and sounds like it may have been recorded with a radio shack "Spy Listener." But as the album progresses I must admit that the sounds becomes rather catchy and takes me back to when I used to listen to 8 tracks with my father in the basement of our home. I would classify their sound as traditional rock or perhaps retro rock. “Australia” is a killer song, full of everything that made you fall in love with the Shins in the first place, mixed with a couple new treats. James Mercer still has a rapid rate of delivery for his verbose, poetic lyrics and their songs still float happily along. In fact, if the video for “Australia” doesn’t have a young couple running in a sunlit spring field, they’re missing out. This is what they’ll play in young-spring-love montages for years to come.
Overall the album is well written and produced very well. I feel that the effects used in the background of each song take away from the lyrics and mask the quality of the guitar tracks. Sometimes in music I have learned that "less is more." I do enjoy the fact that they are signed with Sub-Pop the same label that made Nirvana famous.
MY RATING OF THE ALBUM IS: *** of ***** stars. You can order the album here.
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