Music Envy : Album of the Week

The Shins: Wincing the Night Away

Song Highlight: Sea Legs

I’m definitely no Shins expert, but I love James Mercer’s eerie vocals on top of unconventional off-center pop arrangements as much as the next indie-pop fan. There’s a strange allure to his music that I’ve always had trouble describing. I wasn’t even sure I liked it much at first, but I couldn’t help but listen to it over and over.

From ‘Wincing the NIght Away’, ‘Sea Legs’ stands out for me because, in addition to the band’s characteristically lush, hypnotic melodies, this song has a quality that interested me most about the Shins in the first place: it’s surprising. In an album with mostly upbeat pop songs, ‘Sea Legs’ breaks the flow and introduces a tone that’s not simply different, like ‘Black Wave’ (which takes on a darker sound -  a more typical route to go), but sort of… funky… while maintaining melodious pop sensibilities. The 40-second intro builds on a tight groove established by the drums, acoustic guitar, and bass, which carries throughout the track and grows in sophistication as it interacts with full-bodied vocal arrangements, both smooth and rhythmic synths, lavish guitars and strings, and something resembling a flute. Needless to say, the underlying rhythm is what makes this song uniquely interesting and mesmerizing, but the song would get old quickly without the dynamics that are so well-executed by the vocals and strings. It’s a song that keeps revealing more to me every time I listen to it.

— Eugene Limb