polaroids of androids

The Shins - Wincing The Night Away

In the spirit of a badly run government campaign - Hype Kills.

If I had a dollar for everytime one of my favourite bands caved under the pressure of 'hype', either off the back of a great album or some cringe-worthy lines from a Zach Braff movie, I would have enough money to buy all these disapointing albums and get them nicely gold plated (making them unusable, but very nice). It's almost a inevitable curse that bands with 'cred' and 'respect' crumble under the pressure of too many teeny pobbing dickweeds jumping on top of them to the tune unintentional smash hit or accidental pop masterpiece. It's a sad state of affairs.

Around the interweb over the past few months it was impossible to swing a minitature poodle without hitting someone that was jerking off The Shins and the obvious abilities to make fantastic music. I was worried. In fact, I am not too much of 'A Man' to admit I was downright scared. Scared that The Shins were going to fall by the wayside, use their increased budget to buy 'artsy' new instruments and make an album that was either too far away from their signature sound or too much in the column of conservative pop mainstream poop.

Luckily, for all involved, The Shins have delievered an album which is different to their previous releases, with evidence of bigger bucks behind it, but without losing a single step. I love it when bands take a little bit of a gamble with their sound and mix that with a natural progression. That's exactly what The Shins have done on this release. Their are definate hints of experimentation on this release, but there is also a fantastic use of what is commonly known as 'not going too far with that crazy shit'. It flows like an album, not a collection of songs. It, as with all of their past work, grows on the listener the more they listen to it, like most fantastic albums. Sure, it might also please those that think 'they will blow their mind', but, most importantly, it doesn't turn it's back on those that love this bands' unique sound.

For now, at least, The Shins have ducked the doom of over-hype and come out victors. Bravo.