Also, I received my first comment from someone that I'm pretty sure I don't know (QueensJenn commenting on the Arrogant Worms - thanks for reading!) This is a good time (paradoxically) to again note that I rarely reply to comments, since I've alread had my say, and I want you to have yours. I take a fairly modernist approach to reviews, so I focus on my reaction to the music alone, and my personal experiences or associations with it. Consequently, there will be times when I know a lot less about any given album's background than readers. So it goes...but if I'm going to get through my whole collection before I kick the bucket, I've got to keep plugging on. I appreciate the extra information readers provide.
OK, on to the next album!
Disc 366 is...Wincing The Night Away
Artist: The ShinsYear of Release: 2007
What’s Up With The Cover?: This is the kind of stuff I used to draw on my binders in high school and university during boring classes - only way better. I'm not sure how you make doodling into good art, but the person who did this cover has managed it. I wonder if the fern/tree things are part of the creature, or some kind of parasite like my friend, Klebsiella Pneumoniae? If it is the latter don't despair, Doodle Creature, they've got a pill for that.
How I Came To Know It: I haven't reviewed a Shins album since way back at Disc 22 (where I used to be a lot more succinct, I note). If you've been reading since then, you'll know Sheila and I discovered the Shins when they performed on Saturday Night Live a few years ago. I can't remember if it was to promote this album or the previous "Chutes Too Narrow" but whatever the case, we got this record shortly after seeing them.
How It Stacks Up: This is one of Sheila's favourite albums, and with good reason. We have three Shins albums, and I'd put this one first among them.
Rating: 5 stars.
"Wincing the Night Away" is a great record, and it is a shame that it was the last one from the Shins (although apparently there is a new one out/coming out in 2012 with a revamped lineup).
This album wastes no time drawing you in. The first notes on the opening track, "Sleeping Lessons" are atmospheric; muted and diffuse like they are being heard deep under the water. I'm not sure what the instrument is that makes them - a synthesizer? A strange set of small gongs? A xylophone with an ungodly amount of reverb? - it doesn't matter. Before your ear can finish considering, the song breaks into a more contemporary rock arrangement.
At the beginning of the next track, a German voice demands that it is "time to put the ear goggles on!" but if they aren't already on by the end of "Sleeping Lessons" then start over, because you're doing it wrong.
I don't listen to the radio, but listening to this album I kept thinking, 'this must be a hit.' The songs are so ear-goggle friendly, and well constructed there is no way they couldn't all be big hits. I was therefore shocked to find that the only 'hit' was the equally excellent "Phantom Limb" and apparently a minor one at that. I knew there was a reason I hated listening to the radio.
That said, the Shins are one of those bands that music geeks will often praise, and "Wincing The Night Away" is their finest hour.
It's not just the sing-along quality they have, as you get an emotional high singing along with the series of drawn-out "ohs" in "Phantom Limb" - although there is that. It certainly isn't the guitar riffs, which are mostly back in the mix. If anything, the Shins have mastered creating a single sound out of all the instruments. It isn't that they're playing tight (they are) it is that the song constructions more resemble an orchestra in how the pieces compliment one another than a more traditional four or five piece rock band.
Because of this, I found concentrating on the lyrics difficult, but I didn't find that difficulty annoying. Phrases bubble up into your consciousness out of songs, but without Herculean mental effort, they eventually slide back into the mix as you groove along. When I do listen to lyrics (or cheat and read them out of the liner notes) I find them carefully crafted and evocative.
None more so than the record's best song, "A Comet Appears" a depressingly inspirational dirge that could be about aging, terminal illness or just losing touch with yourself. Maybe because I'm not terminally ill, and feel fairly in touch with myself, for me it always seems to be about aging. Here's just a sample:
"One hand on this wily comet
Take a drink just to give me some weight
Some uberman I'd make, I'm barely a vapor
They shone a chlorine light on a host of individual sins
Let's carve my aging face off
Fetch us a knife start with my eyes
Down so the lines form a grimacing smile."
Because of the 'arty' liner notes, I'm not sure where the line breaks should go, so this is a rough approximation (yes, I feel a deep need for line breaks). Regardless, I love all the assonance in this section of the song, and the feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness they convey. I like to imagine this is the story of an old man, seeing Halley's Comet for the second time in his life, as he prepares for death, and thinks back on regret and lost opportunity. I have no idea, but that's how it speaks to me.
I was going to end by saying this is a five star song (which it is) but that the album could only achieve four. But the truth is, while this record didn't really change me, it doesn't have any weaknesses. You could pull any song off of it, and I'd enjoy hearing it. So for that reason, and for the brilliance of "A Comet Appears" I'm going to go soft, and give it five.
Best tracks: All tracks, but of particular note: Sleeping Lessons, Phantom Limb, Spilt Needles, and A Comet Appears
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