The Shins

James Mercer and

The Shins surely appreciate the role that Garden State played in helping them rocket right past the indie shadows and into the mainstream sunshine, but it can't be too fun to be inextricably tagged as the band that was guaranteed to change your life. While fans have waited for the follow-up to broad crowd pleasers Oh, Inverted World and Chutes Too Narrow, the expectations have just kept rising. If things went according to plan, Wincing the Night Away would be the sort of album that steadied an iconic indie label (Sub Pop) during tumultuous times in the industry, and would allow them to take bigger chances on new bands down the road. Everybody was waiting.

Mercer delivered, mostly. Wincing the Night Away is both hugely unassuming and impressively ambitious. It's a record with plenty of gems; they don't add up to a masterpiece, but the first two Shins records really weren't masterpieces, either. Instead, we get evidence that, even though they are already indie-pop's most widely beloved band, their best is quite possibly yet to come. The only setbacks with Wincing are a few scattered misfires, like the prettily arranged but ultimately rather milquetoast "Red Rabbits" and "A Comet Appears." Lead single "Phantom Limb" doesn't match the easy euphoria of their past singles, but provides a clean showcase for Mercer's continued evolution toward becoming a top-tier pop vocalist. Mercer clearly wanted to avoid rehashing previous works, but even the songs that stick closer to the comfort zone do it so nimbly and likeably ("Australia") that it's hard to not be swept along.

"Sea Legs" drops some skittering electronic beats and a super-funky-for-The-Shins bass line, building toward an orchestral swell and graceful vocal harmonizing. Viva Voce's Anita Robinson provides a pretty harmonic foil to Mercer on "Phantom Limb" and "Turn On Me." "Split Needles" has a darker, more brooding sound, and wouldn't have been out of place on Nada Surf's Let Go. Opener "Sleeping Lessons" starts -- well, sleepily, sounding almost like it's being transmitted from underwater, and then the atmosphere around Mercer begins to shift and become more complex until, by the 2/3 point, it's developed into a full-on rock song. It's a rousing way to kick off, and should be an energizing staple in the live set.

"Turn On Me" is a clear highlight because of an irresistible vocal melody that almost makes it sound like the sunniest love song around, until the listener realizes that lines like "You had to know I was fond of you / Fond of Y-O-U" are followed by lines like "Though I knew you masked your disdain." Both effervescent and bittersweet, it's a little piece of pop magic, and further proof that The Shins aren't just interested in finding the easy road. - Adam McKibbin, The Red Alert

"The Shins will change your life!" That kind of proclamation is loaded with expectations when it's just one friend talking up a band to another, but it's magnified a thousandfold when Natalie Portman says it in a hit movie. The band's popularity was already growing steadily with each album they released, but Garden State took them to another level entirely -- if anyone's life was changed by that praise-filled cameo, it was the Shins'. The expectations and pressure that the Garden State effect brought could've been too much for any band, especially a delicate, wistful one like the Shins. Though they took a little while to deliver a new album, Wincing the Night Away shows that time was well spent. Neither a retread nor a radical departure -- nor, thankfully, a conscious attempt at making "life-changing" music -- the album is a mix of quintessentially Shins songs and tracks that take their sound in subtly different directions. Wincing's clean, borderline slick production is the main concession to the band's post-Garden State fame, but this just makes joyfully sad songs like "Australia" and "Turn on Me" sound like nods to jangly '80s indie instead of jangly '60s guitar pop. "Phantom Limb," Wincing the Night Away's single, is the closest the album comes to the Shins-by-numbers that some fans feared this album would be in the wake of their mainstream success, though the strange, soaring chord change that leads into the chorus keeps things from being too predictable. Actually, many of the album's best moments show how the Shins' music has progressed: "Sleeping Lessons" begins and defines Wincing the Night Away, moving from shimmery opening keyboards to strummy acoustic guitars to a rousing, electrified finish. "Black Wave" is another standout, a stark ballad with chilly layers of electronic textures surrounding James Mercer's plaintive vocals, and "Split Needles" continues this dark, dreamy, synth-heavy feel. The band ventures even farther from familiar territory with "Sea Legs"' slinky beat and funky bassline, and with "Red Rabbits"' keyboards, which sound like a cross between dripping water and steel drums. These experiments never feel contrived, and never get in the way of the vulnerable heart of the Shins' music (which beats loudest on the hopeful album closer, "A Comet Appears"). Wincing the Night Away is the sound of the Shins acknowledging where they've been and moving on to new territory, and while it probably won't change your life, it probably will make it more enjoyable -- and, most likely, that's all the Shins wanted to do in the first place. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide