00-the_shins-wincing_the_night_away-2007-eos.nfo
Originally released : 01-23-2007
Release date : 07-11-2007
Album name : Wincing The Night Away
Artist : The Shins
Ripped by : miked00
Genre : Indie
Label : Sub Pop
Encoding Software : Lame EOS
Quality : -V 2
Tracks : 11
Size of Files : 62,7 MB
01 03:58 Sleeping Lessons
02 03:57 Australia
03 00:57 Pam Berry
04 04:50 Phantom Limb
05 05:19 Sealegs
06 04:31 Red Rabbits
07 03:42 Turn On Me
08 03:19 Black Wave
09 03:46 Spilt Needles
10 03:43 Girl Sailor
11 03:49 A Comet Appears
Total time: 41:51 min
"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.
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