The Shins: Wincing the Night Away

There's something about The Shins' new album “Wincing the Night Away” that is unsettling. After listening to it a few times I have to wonder what it was that I ever liked about them. A few more listens really makes me wonder where this formerly Indie rooted band gone motion picture soundtrack sensation stands to land in the minds of young people twenty years from now.

The shins wont continue to rock the way Nirvana does. People won't repeatedly buy their long since worn out albums like they do for the Beatles. The kids that do listen to The Shins twenty years from now will be the sexually confused ones who are actively involved in drama club and reliving an era of music they didn't even sport Flinstone diapers through. These are the children who are still obsessed with their parent's record collections at an age when they should be listening to next big soundtrack sensations and smoking pot as part of their ritual rebellion against society, the man, and injustice. The reason for all this de- mythification is simple: Some idiot thought it would be a good idea to push the band into “Wincing the Night Away” way too soon.

All this implies that I think the Shin's have become nothing more than a tool. Admittedly, sometimes all I can hear are the worst aspects of The Cure mixed in with the best aspects of the ever annoying and deserving of death Travis (I hope you read this and burn in hell you self loathing pathetic excuse for a human). Something about The Shins has gone from innovative alt-country-indie to mediocre twanging blah. Maybe it's because they're finally making a little cash. Maybe it's the contrived just-after-Christmas-instead-street-cred-protection release date (after Christmas is the new before Christmas - nobody likes the crap they get anymore and gift cards are a simple sure thing). I suspect, however, that the problem is that they're spending too much time listening to some producer's suggestions for perfection and not enough time listening to each other screw everything up in a locked and soundproof room.

I'm reminded, suddenly, of the album “Mutations” by Beck. “Mutations” is far and away my favorite Beck album. The songs are rich with feeling and Beck doesn't do any of that annoying raping he so loves to inflict on people. The only reason that album was released was because Beck was sick of being booed at when he played those songs (at least, so it has been said). Evidently the fans only want to hear what's already on an album. I think the fact that he sat on those songs for so long allowed him to have really great ideas when he finally went into the studio with them.

As far as I can tell the problems with “Wincing the Night Away”are two fold: production is used to cover up bad or underdeveloped compositions, and there's an unsettling undertone of fear. It's as though The Shins are as afraid to stick to their old sound as they are of trying new things. I think that there wasn't enough time between albums for them to find the redefinition they obviously want but didn't actually achieve (The Beatles never made that mistake). They got greedy and now they're going to pay for it. I can hear their purebred Indie fan base screaming “abandon ship!” at the top their lungs while their def, trendy, and late coming counterparts are quickly becoming aware that the boat is sinking and it's only a mater a time before they're outed as posers they really are. Whoever gets to the life boat first gets to live.

All that said there are some things about this album that are perfectly executed. It mostly revolves around rhythmic textures and subtle post recording harmonic fills. However, an album leaning on production level contributions is not going to sit well with the fan base that launched The Shins into popular acceptance. The indie-fucks giveth and and taketh away.

Here is what leads me to believe that the album is over produced: most of the compositions suck but there are nonmotivic post recording contributions that provide depth to songs that are otherwise without convincing feel. Message to record companies: a good producer understands a band's sound and when the band is ready to release another album or even lay down tracks; a good manager makes sure his band is locked into a soundproof room as often as possible; A good band likes the music they're writing and playing. I don't hear these things on “Wincing the Night Away,” and if I can't hear it I can't feel it. The Shins are perceived to be a band that has a feel. It's that simple.

The Shins only manage to find themselves on two songs; “Turn on Me,” and “A Comet.” Both of these seem to have the least production influence and they both sound like The Shins instead of The Cure and Travis wrapped in a giant flaming turd. The only thing I have against these songs is that by the time you've dug through all the crap on the album and found them you've already lost your faith in the band and it's hard to tell if the songs are good or just so much better than everything else that you'll buy it. I'm fairly certain that “A Comet” is almost golden. They kept it simple. It's hard to believe I had to go through the whole album waiting for something simple and sweet from The Shins, but I did.

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