Expectations are steep for Wincing the Night Away, The Shins' first new album in over three years. The band attempts to validate these increased hopes by taking on an expansive subject matter and complex sound, just like Radiohead and Wilco have done in the past. This is a risk, as The Shins have always been known for their melodies and warm, even intimate, sound. But this album contains the darkest, coldest and most sonically distant music they've ever produced.
Though The Shins have long straddled the line between wistfulness and gloominess, songs like "Your Algebra" and "Sphagnum Esplanade" were the shadowy corners of otherwise brightly lit rooms. With this album, the band tries to flip their formula on its head. On Wincing, The Shins plunge into the sounds of ocean depths with a persistent nautical motif, and meet only limited success.
The Shins are a very good band, and this is a worthy album, but Wincing suffers from a lack of commitment to its own ambition.
The band's new approach is evident from the first keyboard notes of the first song, "Sleeping Lessons," which sound like the musical accompaniment for the opening credits of a Jacques Cousteau documentary. The aquatic bleeps and boops provide the backdrop for James Mercer's vocals, and are joined by two guitars that push the ambient undersea effects to the background with a wash of noise. "Sleeping Lessons" tries to set the basic template for the album, as Mercer's singing and ambient effects merge with normal rock instrumentation that's larger and emptier than that of previous Shins' albums.
But The Shins' approach is flawed, as ambience and emptiness are not the most compelling parts of this album.
Mercer's voice and delivery aren't enough to carry songs without a rich backing, such as the ersatz country guitar of Chutes' "Gone for Good." Oftentimes he sounds out of step and out of place with the album's songs, as if he's competing with the music.
It is the album's second and best song, "Australia," which shows what most ails the rest. Like "Sleeping Lessons" the song starts with echoing synth notes, but these soon fade and "Australia" becomes a rollicking, banjo-fied pop song that contains some of the album's sunniest guitar work. Any Shins song that begins with "la la la la" should be great, and "Australia" doesn't disappoint -- it sounds like The Shins being The Shins. The song is also a clear sign of how forced the darkness of the rest of the record really is. When Mercer sings "watching the lantern dim / starved of oxygen / so give me your hand / and let's jump out the window," it could be a metaphor for the album as a whole.
The CD's best moments are its less synthetic ones, literally and figuratively. Songs where sonic emptiness is checked by melody, such as the mid-tempo "Turn On Me" and "Girl Sailor," represent the classic Shins style.
The first single, "Phantom Limb," is soaring and admirably layered as it pushes the envelope of The Shins' sound better than any song on the album. In the eclectic, carnival-at-sea sounding "Red Rabbits," Mercer's voice arcs like The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson's as he sings "who decides / who paddles over the falls? / yeah, who makes the call? / who makes the call?" And the horn that appears on the album closer "A Comet Appears" is a knowing and able reference to "The Past and Pending," the last song on the band's 2001 debut album, Oh Inverted World.
Though this album lacks the giddy propulsion of The Shins' earlier efforts, it doesn't sink. Hope remains very much afloat that The Shins will someday make a transcendent record, but Wincing the Night Away settles for mere translucence.
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