Mainstream indie pop may not be as popular as it was when "New Slang" dominated the world a short while ago, but that hasn't stopped The Shins from continually engineering contagious, almost viral, songs that affix themselves to your temporal lobe and snub your best attempts to remove them.
"Sleeping Lessons" opens the record with a soft, nearly alien, series of programmed tones set to a loop before vocalist James Mercer joins in. As the song builds, more instruments merge into the composition and produce a crescendo that peaks with Mercer evolving his flat, monotone delivery into the singing voice that fans have come to recognize. Before you know it, you're ears-deep in the full-fledged pop of "Australia" and noticing that The Shins' overall sound has changed significantly since 2003's Chutes Too Narrow.
Influentially speaking, Wincing the Night Away feels a lot less like The Beatles and a lot more like The Smiths. Traces of the post-punk legends' poppier tracks can be heard in "Australia" and "Turn On Me," especially when Mercer has his "Morrissey moments" and holds notes and tosses in nonsensical sounds to flow with the music. Even the somber "Black Wave" has evidence of The Smiths' more experimental side, and "Split Needles" is a little mix of both. The influence is rather subtle, and the band does an excellent job of warping it into their own unique flavor of pop.
Adding to that, in what feels more like a reinvention than a progression, Wincing the Night Away's playful air has an eclectic range of instruments and elements that accent each track with odd precision. Along with liberal sprinklings of synthesized and programmed effects coming and going, there's the lap steel and violin swimming into the mix during the tropical "Red Rabbits," a banjo bouncing along to "Australia," a French horn backing the melancholy closer "A Comet Appears," and a few other curiously appropriate additions.
I only have one major strike against this record, particularly the third track, "Pam Berry." For fifty-six seconds, Mercer sings in his high voice over a deep, persistently droning guitar and I'm not sure of the purpose it serves. It's barely even a song and no one with a brain is going to ever request that the band play it live (at least I hope not), but I suppose it could be seen as a lead-in to "Phantom Limb." Other than that, I can't imagine why it was included on the record at all. I'm also on the fence about "Black Wave," but that's only because I get kind of bored with it and ready to skip to the next track, because let's face it, the best songs on this record are the poppy ones.
With Wincing the Night Away The Shins offer more proof that they don't need a dorky indie-rocker tool of a movie star or a corporate burger chain behind them to make their quirky-yet-simplistic pop arrangements iconic, because the music speaks well enough on its own. They may always take some flak for their unbridled willingness to lease their music out to whoever wants to pay them, but as long as they continue to generate unique and inspired songs, I don't think it should matter.
