| Label: Sub Pop | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 39180 |
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Song Listing | ![]() |
Disc 1
| | Song Title |  |  | | 1. Sleeping Lessons |  | | | 2. Australia | | | | 3. Pam Berry | | | | 4. Phantom Limb | | | | 5. Sea Legs | | | | 6. Red Rabbits | | | | 7. Turn On Me | | | | 8. Black Wave | | | | 9. Split Needles | | | | 10. Girl Sailor | | | | 11. A Comet Appears | | |
| Wincing the Night Away is The Shins' third full-length album. It's also 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 itand in this case, it does. While the vocals channel the spirit of Morrissey, "Sea Legs" pairs a loping hip-hop beat with lush melody and searing guitars. Elsewhere the band toys with tweaked-out, liquid piano steeped in kaleidoscopic strings ("Red Rabbit"); fractured synth samples ("Spilt Needles"); gauzy, arpeggiated keyboards cloaking thunderous anthems ("Sleeping Lessons"); and, taking cues from early Jesus and Mary Chain albums, sweeping, fuzz-toned epics ("Phantom Limb"). Finally, "Turn on Me," "Girl Sailor" and "Australia" are the lilting, thrilling, rollicking, rock-solid pop songs we've all come to covet from The Shins. Consider yourself surprised.
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | The Shins: James Mercer (vocals, various instruments, programming); Dave Hernandez (guitar); Marty Crandall (organ, synthesizer, bass guitar, percussion); Jesse Sandoval (drums). | | Recording information: Supernatural Sound, Portland, Oregon. | | With their music referred to as "life-changing" in the popular 2004 film GARDEN STATE, the Shins, already a revered indie-rock band, recorded their third Sub Pop studio album under the weight of high expectations. Finally, in early '07, the group emerged with the strikingly ambitious and accomplished WINCING THE NIGHT AWAY. | | On the opening "Sleeping Lessons," woozy keyboard lines and the wavering vocals of frontman James Mercer immediately announce WINCING as a departure, but slowly the drifting atmospherics give way to a guitar-driven rave-up. Much of the record echoes this more expansive sound, with the shimmering "Phantom Limb" hitting a cavernous crescendo, and the dreamy, synth-laden "Red Rabbits" bordering on ambient territory. Of course, the Shins haven't forsaken their knack for pop-perfect tunes, as best evinced by the exuberant "Australia," proving that they can temper newfound experimentalism with the quirky, easy-going charm that garnered them attention in the first place. | | |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Associated Artists and Works |
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| Technical Info | | Release Date : 01/23/2007 | | Original Release Date : 2007 | | Catalog ID : 70705 | | Label : Sub Pop Records (USA) | | Number of Discs : 1 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00098787070521 |
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Rolling Stone (p.71)
- 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "The melodies are very nearly on par with the curlicues and knockout drops of the band's breakthrough, and Mercer is still singing so lithe and refined you'd think Ray Charles had never existed."Spin (p.p.87)
- 3.5 stars out of 5 -- "[W]istful....WINCING is a purposefully low-impact affair. On the gorgeous finale, 'A Comet Appears,' Mercer picks at a nimble guitar line like it's 3 a.m...." Q (p.100)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "[S]uper-smart pop music the way they used to make it 20 years ago....The Shins deliver anthems to little people in troubled times. Life-changing, for sure." Uncut (p.72)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "[E]verything is awash in shimmering production, harmonic flourishes and unexpected textures." Alternative Press (p.109)
- "[T]he bright points are plenty bright..." Q (Magazine)
(p.87)
- Ranked #08 in Q's "The 50 Best Albums Of 2007." Mojo (Publisher)
(p.100)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "There are twists, but no clutter, just a gentle lyricism leaving every song lie from the inside. WINCING THE NIGHT AWAY is, on its own quiet terms, a little landmark." Rolling Stone 7 of 10
The melodies are very nearly on a par with the curlicues and knockout drops of the band's breakthrough, and Mercer is still singing so lithe and refined you'd think Ray Charles had never existed. But as you'd hope from a record that took so long, this is not Chutes Too Narrow II. - Robert Christgau
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In the late 1990s, the Albuquerque indie-rock band Flake Music morphed into the Shins, led by vocalist-guitarist James Mercer. Upon the release of 2001's Oh, Inverted World, the Shins garnered a landslide of critical acclaim with their amiable, 1960s-influenced power-pop. Subsequent touring further raised the group's profile, and their eagerly awaited sophomore album, Chutes Too Narrow, revealed another set of clever and quirky pop-rock ditties.
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