The Shins

Artist Review

The Shins:
Or, the story of how James Mercer is continually evolving his music.

It’s a fair assumption I’d say to put James Mercer into that category of front men who kind of become bigger than the band that they’re in…or at least on par with them. Maybe a little in the same way that Thom Yorke has the Radiohead thing but also his own side gig. Would I put them in the same bracket?…maybe…I really like Thom Yorke…a lot.

But the more that I have had the chance to digest anything that Mercer does, the more I like it. Whether it be his later incarnation with Modest Mouse as Broken Bells or with this incarnation of band members, the undeniable fact is that James Mercer has a sound and it comes through [albeit in different musical genres] all his music.

It didn’t take me long to fall in love with the Shins. I wasn

The Shins were formed in 1996 and like a lot of other bands, was morphed from a previous version of themselves before that called Flake Music [Nice change of name fellas]. James focused the band in a more Indie rock direction and after touring for some time, seemed to make a breakthrough with their first album ‘Oh, Inverted World’ in 2001.

The track ‘New Slang’ spearheaded this album and helped it to be 1000% more of a success that the record company hoped it would be. Following this, their second album ‘Chutes Too Narrow’ in 2003 was a much anticipated event, but somehow after touring for this album, the track ‘New Slang’ was added to the soundtrack for the movie Garden State which propelled them even further into the successful Indie zone.

Then, in 2007, came their best release to date. ‘Wincing the Night Away’ was the last album created with the original members before they disbanded [I think this was a nice way of saying that Mercer sort of fired everyone from the band, went and did his thing with Broken Bells and then returned to record a new Shins album ‘Port of Morrow’ in 2012 with completely new band members….hmmm.] None the less, ‘Wincing The Night Away’ was the album I cut my teeth on when it comes to Mercer and his unique approach to music and how it can sound.

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~ Article updated November 2018

Mykel Rugers

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