Wincing the Night Away

iTunes Review

This moody, inward-looking third album finds indie darlings the Shins sidling out from underneath the expectations of critics and fans. If there aren’t quite as many shivery moments of headphone bliss as on their first two albums, well, the band seems to be aiming for something more textured here. (Though there’s no dearth of goosebump moments on Wincing; witness the swoony violin line on “Red Rabbits,” the bubblegum harmonies of “Girl Sailor,” or the shimmery wash of keyboards on “Split Needles.”) The Phil Ek-produced Wincing is more varied in both song structure and sonic palette, full of distortions, lo-fi samples, swirling strings, and warm surges of synth. Some moments sound downright experimental, like the stuttering, almost hip-hop beats of “Sea Legs,” or the spacey electronica that backs Mercer’s falsetto on the opening of “Swimming Lessons.” With their sunny, vocal-led melodies, though, “Australia” and “Phantom Limb” are vintage Shins, and “A Comet Appears” is the contender for this album’s “New Slang,” an aching slice of soft rock whose sweet melody belies the blackness of its lyrics: “Let’s carve my aging face off / Fetch us a knife, start with my eyes / down so the lines form a grimacing smile.” Transcendence is OK as far as it goes, but sometimes there’s more depth to be gained by staying earthbound.