It's been four long years since The Shins turned in the excellent Chutes Too Narrow, raising the collectively perceived IQ of indie-nerds and paving the way for our acceptance of The Decemeberists as lit-pop laureates of the soon-to-be post-something era. Since then James Mercer and company have received the double-edged endorsement of Zach Braff and more recently stellar promotion of the album by SubPop via a date-of-release appearance on Letterman following a guest spot on SNL earlier in the week... all leading to a Billboard debut of #2 behind boy-band Pretty Ricky, who I'm pretty sure doesn't exist. As a point of reference, SubPop's previous high water mark was The Afghan Whigs’ outstanding 1996 album Black Love which entered the chart at #79.
Wincing seems like a consciously reached half-way point between the roomy guitar and vocal atmosphere of their Oh, Inverted World debut and the hyper literate song craft of Chutes Too Narrow. The production slightly deemphasizes the central role of lyrical content and vocal performance leaving room for harmony, reverb and occasional empty spaces - musical forms just rich enough to balance the regular use of words like "conundrum" while rhyming "January" with "contrary" (track two, "Australia").
The album generally showcases the band's strengths in both regards without building a consistent theme or sense of direction. Things start off well enough with "Sleeping Lessons" whose drawn, tinkling introduction harkens back to early Shins before finding its pulse, stamping its way into the wide open pop of "Australia."
Track four offers the first and easily the best single on the album "Phantom Limb" which manages to blend their trademark simple melodies with vaguely complex lyrics capped by a soaring chorus as rewarding as mid-tempo emo-pop gets. It's a tough act to follow, and "Sea Legs" broken beat and backing strings ala Beck without the funk does not rise to the occasion, playing too long and allowing things to drift briefly into the doldrums.
This awkward transition might best exemplify the band's greatest strengths and few weaknesses. There is no questioning their ability to write engaging, smart pop tunes full of nuance, humor, and veiled social relevance so it should follow that an album full of such songs would make for a good album... right? Yes and no. Those keystone tracks in the middle of the disc fail to hold together a strong beginning and end. Songs are forced to live and die on their own without the aid of momentum to buoy difficult or plodding moments along. This can be forgiven on an album with multiple standouts, and Wincing has a few, but it isn't quite enough to bridge the gap between a being good record with really good songs and being a great record with really good songs.
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