The Shins, "Oh Inverted World"

My son’s friend said, “Have you heard the Shins?” We bought the plain, light blue CD, with little white branches with round, yellow flowers on the cover. No photos of the band members, no sexy poses, no grim-faced musicians on the cover.

From the first chirping notes of the first cut, “Carings Creepy” I found myself stunned, stopped, silenced, frozen, unable to do anything but listen. James Mercer’s voice is a young man’s voice, a kind of high voice, full of sincerity, full of feeling, full of longing. I couldn’t understand any of the words but it didn’t matter; this song is a journey, a flight on the back of a bird through mountains and snow and drums and guitar. His lyrics are anything but typical, they are stand alone poetry, highly personal, somewhat abstract, utterly unique. I look at the lyrics on the jacket, too numerous and unique to print here, and wonder how on earth he took these youthful, joyous, enthusiastic and sad melodies and fit these words upon them, not to mention extremely unique arrangements.

The second song is something of Dylan Thomas meets Brian Wilson. “One by One All Day”; the sweetest poetic images set to a driving joyous beat.

I smell the engine grease and mint the wind is blending
Under the moan of rotting elm in the silo floor
Down a hill of pine tree quills we made our way
To the bottom and the ferns where thick moss grows
Beside a stream.
Under the rocks are snails and we can fill our pockets
And let them go one by one in a brand new place.

“The Weird Divide” is the 3rd song, it sounds like a stroll down a quiet street in a small town after dark. A softly sung love song;

It pleases me, this memory
Has swollen with age
Even time can do
Good things to you

“Know Your Onion” - How many of us have felt like this?

Shut out, pimpled and angry
I quietly tied all my guts into knots

“Girl Inform Me” - another one as sweet as “The Weird Divide”, and as poetic.

But your lips when we speak
Are the valleys and peaks of a mountain range on fire

“New Slang” - another painfully, beautiful melody with unique words attached - I heard McDonald’s bought this song from him, but Natalie Portman bought it back, according to my son - I think this is one of the songs by the Shins that was featured in the movie, “Garden State”.

And if you’d’a took to me
Like a gull takes to the wind
Well, I’d’a jumped from my tree
And I’d’a danced like the king of the eyesores
And the rest of our lives would’a fared well

I’m sure every song has personal meaning to James Mercer and I can’t begin to pretend that I understand all that he is trying to convey so let me just say I am impressed and moved by all the various approaches his songs make.

“Your Algebra” is mysterious and gently sung. The meaning escapes me but I love to listen to it, the entire lyrics are these, and yet the arrangement is eerie and odd. You have to hear it for yourself.

You may notice certain things before you die 
Mail them to me should they cause your algebra to fail
Cole and Macey lost their eyes
On the finer points
Roll them up in coffee cake and dine

“The Past and Pending” is another haunting home run. How does he do it?

As someone sets light to the first fires of autumn
we settle down to cut ourselves apart
Cough and twitch from the news on your face
And some foreign candle burning in your eyes

I’ve heard the subsequent albums, “Chutes Too Narrow” and “Wincing the Night Away” and his songwriting, story telling, melody making, image painting is pouring forth like it does for all songwriters touched by the hand of God; I can’t wait to hear what he writes next.

We saw The Shins perform on Austin City Limits. James looked worried as he sang the precision-written lyrics. I wanted to stroke his face with a motherly hand and wipe the tension from his eyebrows. James, you’re a genius and you’re making so many people happy with your music, don’t worry. During the Austin City Limits performance I saw, it was evident that the rest of the band does their part to create the fullness of the Shins sound. As they play among themselves I hope they know they’ve hit on something rare. On all three albums there are so many interesting touches, effects and instruments used to flesh out the songs in ways too numerous to name. Maybe they’re inspired with a muse out of the ordinary, the way the Beatles were. They are far and away among the best of the new talent of the 21st century.