The Shins...new album and general discussion

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It's always worrisome when there is a lineup change in a band, especially one where they've been together for so long. Hopefully it won't be too much of a difference, but still, kind of makes you wonder how this next album will be.
 
I guess The Shins are the new Wilco.

At least the mystery girl who showed up in a TV appearance with them during the last tour hasn't joined the band. I draw the line there.
 
But don't expect to hear much moping around on the new album. "It's a lot more up-tempo stuff," he said. "I haven't really got any real ballad-y stuff right now. I've got 30 songs and none of them are real slow. I think maybe, I'm not so melancholy lately. I'm real happy. I've been lucky in love and I've got a wonderful kid now and things have been going well.
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I like the sound of this new stuff. And I'm happy that he's happy. :up:
 
Also, this thread is funny. It jumps from a post LM made in 2006 about the new album release date to a post by Scumbo in 2009 saying that they left Sub Pop.

What happened to the discussion of the album? I think Wincing The Night Away kicked a lot of ass. Phantom Limb owned my ears for the first few weeks after it came out.
 
elevated_u2_fan said:
I happen to think Wincing The Night Away is their best album so far but don't listen to me, I'm Canadian...
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elfa's always right

I like their first two records enormously as well, but Wincing had a whole new level of maturity that showed they can do a lot more than write a cute and catchy tune.
 
No moping on their next album? But "Pink Bullets" is the best song they've done.
 
meh, I like elevated_u2_fan, besides everyone is shortening their usernames lately... LemonMacphisto is just a bunch of letters all of a sudden - scary times we live in :tsk:

Also, I would also like to submit that Gone For Good is one of their best songs.
 
elevated_u2_fan said:
I happen to think Wincing The Night Away is their best album so far but don't listen to me, I'm Canadian...
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joyfulgirl said:
elfa's always right

I like their first two records enormously as well, but Wincing had a whole new level of maturity that showed they can do a lot more than write a cute and catchy tune.
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I unfortunately do not agree. Actually, I couldn't disagree with both of you more on this. I'd easily rate it dead last. Don't get me wrong, I still love it, but they pretty much shunned the sound that made them popular in the first place. Obviously, bands like this are put in a tough situation where it's difficult to still keep being "the best lo-fi indie pop band" if that means you're still unknown and aren't selling as many albums as you think you could be. Similarly, there's probably only so much room to play in with that sound. Granted, it was pretty obvious with Chutes Too Narrow that they were going to continually move onto a more "produced" sound, and away from the lo-fi aspect, but I unfortunately felt like they lost a lot of the personal touch that made even the lesser songs on the first two albums appealing. Similar to the complaints I'd give U2, I felt like some of the production made a few of the songs on Wincing feel a bit like clunkers, as they'd lost the human aspect that made them so appealing in the first place. The alt. version of Spilt Needles from the Phantom Limb single, for example, was much more immediate, enjoyable, and "Shinsy" than the final album version.

Again, there really isn't a song from Wincing I'd say I don't like (though Red Rabbits is probably one of the worst things they've ever done), but I'm an uberfan so that's not saying much. I just worry that with 2 of the original members gone now, the possibility that they could get even further from what made me love them in the first place, that I could end up incredibly disappointed. Oh wells, I still have high hopes as Mercer is a hell of a song writer.
 
elevated_u2_fan said:
meh, I like elevated_u2_fan, besides everyone is shortening their usernames lately... LemonMacphisto is just a bunch of letters all of a sudden - scary times we live in :tsk:

Also, I would also like to submit that Gone For Good is one of their best songs.
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The original version (which can legally be found on the So Says I single) is even better in my opinion, but I love both. Man oh man, when they released the tiny little video for that before Chutes Too Narrow had been released, I probably watched/listened to it 200 times.

Sweet, I found that vid on Youtube. YouTube - The Shins - Gone for Good (Acoustic)

Unfortunately I got depressed when I started playing it and realized one one of the two people in it is still in the band....

Seriously though, Red Rabbits just doesn't really go anywhere. Easily one of my least favorite thing they've done as "The Shins", definitely my least favorite album track they've made.
 
u2popmofo said:
Unfortunately I got depressed when I started playing it and realized one one of the two people in it is still in the band....
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I'm telling you, Mercer is the new Tweedy. The Shins = The James Mercer Band.
 
u2popmofo said:
Seriously though, Red Rabbits goes nowhere, is pointless, and doesn't fit on the album at all (or with anything else they've ever done)
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I could not disagree more. I'm kind of stunned you don't love it. You will see it my way one day.
 
Oh sure, quote me before I edited it 20 seconds later.

Listening to it again now, still don't like it. If it was just Mercer and his guitar part only, I'd probably love it. Can't stand anything else in the song, it's the epitome of what I was talking about "completely losing what you did well" from the first two albums. It's just so obvious all the rest was done in a studio at a different time as James' voice and guitar.

Blah.
 
elevated_u2_fan said:
meh, I like elevated_u2_fan, besides everyone is shortening their usernames lately... LemonMacphisto is just a bunch of letters all of a sudden - scary times we live in :tsk:

Also, I would also like to submit that Gone For Good is one of their best songs.
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To be fair, it was quite the mouthful. I tried to shorten it to YLB, but got shot down by the Siccinator.

Chalk me down as one of the people who loved Wincing the Night Away, and I'm not Canadian.

Seriously, "Sleeping Lessons" is one of the few reasons to own a great set of headphones.
 
LMP said:
To be fair, it was quite the mouthful. I tried to shorten it to YLB, but got shot down by the Siccinator.
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But now I get you mixed up with someone else. It used to be I only got you mixed up with LemonMelon, but I finally got the Lemons straight and now you go and mess me up again. I'm so confused I can't even remember who I confuse you with now. :huh:

I've had the same (dreaded) name and avatar since the earlier part of this century.
 
u2popmofo said:
Oh sure, quote me before I edited it 20 seconds later.

Listening to it again now, still don't like it. If it was just Mercer and his guitar part only, I'd probably love it. Can't stand anything else in the song, it's the epitome of what I was talking about "completely losing what you did well" from the first two albums. It's just so obvious all the rest was done in a studio at a different time as James' voice and guitar.

Blah.
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Negative Nancy. :love:
 
I love all three records but I find Wincing to be the one I reach for the most, maybe because I overplayed the other ones. I didn't think they could do what they did on the first two records any better than they'd already done it, so I was really happy that they were experimenting with other sounds.
 
elevated_u2_fan said:
Scumbo, I am floored.... FLOORED I TELL YOU!

Why would you want them to stay all low-fi and "Shinsy" when Wincing was so more interesting musically? I like the new direction they went in...
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Yeah, that's what I was trying to say.
 
elevated_u2_fan said:
Scumbo, I am floored.... FLOORED I TELL YOU!

Why would you want them to stay all low-fi and "Shinsy" when Wincing was so more interesting musically?
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Well, because I didn't feel that way about it.

This argument is great from an ironic view point. I love the album, would have put it in my favorites of the year that year (had I been posting on Interference at the time...), The Shins are one of my all time favorite bands, and I remember the days where I posted about them numerous times a day in an effort to get ANYONE to actually give them a shot. Honestly, I'm just glad you guys like them, so this has made me laugh.

More irony, I'm entirely certain I never read the Pitchfork review for Wincing as the score upset me, but the last paragraph is the exact same argument I'd make as to why it's their "weakest" in my mind (which still means nothing, as I DO love it):

There's a time-honored imperative to encourage bands for attempting to develop and expand, and the Shins could certainly take their music in many different directions with great success. But it's hard not to notice that the least adventurous tracks on Wincing the Night Away are generally the most rewarding. In many cases, the album's more experimental touches seem at odds with the natural elegance of Mercer's songwriting, making it hard to read the album as a shoddy blueprint of what a more "difficult" Shins record might sound like. Instead, Wincing the Night Away is a lovely and well-executed album and-- for the first time in the band's career-- nothing more.

Pitchfork: The Shins: Wincing the Night Away

It's also ironic that they loved Red Rabbits. :wink: That paragraph really says it all for me though. The first 2 were absolute "classics" to me personally, the band completely owned my life for a few years there because of it. Wincing was a great album, but just didn't make it into that same level for my tastes.
 
Did you even read the reason I gave for including it, hummus hipster?
 
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