Music Envy: Album of the Week

The Shins - Wincing the Night Away

Song Highlight: Phantom Limb

A little known fact about guitar players: we actually want to be drummers. I can probably list my top 5 favorite drummers before guitar players (but we’ll leave that for another post). And this is what I love about Wincing’s Phantom Limb. Besides being hooky as hell and somehow haunting at the same time, with great melodies and a killer tremolo echoing throughout, the rhythm section is really making this track. As a guitar player, I love it when this happens. More than occasionally during a halfwaynorth practice, the rhythm section will lock in and take a song to a whole new level. Jason and I will glance over at each other with huge grins knowing full well that Eugene and Darby are in charge and giving us a good face-melting.

The rhythm section in Phantom Limb is reminiscent of Phil Spector’s “wall of sound;” even-keeled, but thunderous. The kick and bass seem to palpitate in time to a collective coronary artery that makes you feel this unassuming track in your chest. All the while James Mercer’s vocals seemingly come at you from the depths of a long, dark hallway. You almost expect to hear Ronnie Spector herself echoing, “Baby, my darling!”

- Joseph Shields