The Shins: Wincing the Night Away – COMPACT DISCS

Title: Wincing the Night Away
Artist: The Shins
Label: Sub Pop
Product Type: COMPACT DISCS
UPC: 098787070521
Genre: Indie Rock/Pop
Release Date: 2007-01-23
Number of Discs: 1

Recorded over time in James Mercer’s basement studio, Phil Ek’s Seattle digs, and in Oregon City with veteran engineer Joe Chiccarelli (Beck, U2) – Wincing the Night Away is a Whole new animal. It’s is the sound of a band growing up and out. Mercer’s infectious, indelible melodic style is still at the core, and unfaltering. But anything can happen around it – and in this case, it does. Channeling a Morrissey vibe, ‘Sea Legs’ pairs a hip-hop (yes, hip-hop) beat with lush melodic lines and searing guitars. Elsewhere the band toys with tweaked-out piano steeped in psychedelic strings (‘Red Rabbit’); fractured synth samples (‘Silt Needles’)’ gauzy, arpeggiated keyboards cloaking thunderous anthems (Sleeping Lessons’)’ and, taking cues from early Jesus and Mary Chain albums – Seeping, fuzztoned epics (‘Phantom Limb’). Finally, ‘Turn on Me, ‘ ‘Girl Sailor’ and ‘Australia’ are the lilting, exhilarating, rollicking, rock-solid pop songs we’ve all come to covet from The Shins.

Tracks:
1.1 Sleeping Lessons
1.2 Australia
1.3 Pam Berry
1.4 Phantom Limb
1.5 Sea Legs
1.6 Red Rabbits
1.7 Turn on Me
1.8 Black Wave
1.9 Spilt Needles
1.10 Girl Sailor
1.11 A Comet Appears