The Shins, Oh, Inverted World (Sub Pop) 9+
Like The Beachwood Sparks, The Tyde and Beulah, Albuqurque, NM's The Shins is a retro band that offers more than just revivalist garage rock. Like a handful of bands before them, The Shins are a band that starts out paying tribute to the past, but have the songwriting chops to potentially transcend it. On Oh, Inverted World they've started out of the box a stride ahead of the pack by nicely balancing 60s with 90s influences -- psychedelic pop, Love, Moby Grape, Kinks with Guided By Voices, Sunny Day Real Estate and the Elephant 6 stable; British glam and Robyn Hitchcock. The one thing that holds back Jason Mercer's songwriting is the same problem that The New Pornographers suffer from -- dinky sound. Whether it's an aesthetic choice or engineering fuckup, Oh, Inverted World sounds horribly trebly. They don't exactly shred with their live show either. But perhaps it's fitting that the sound matches the fragile beauty of folky songs like "New Slang." "Caring Is Creepy" is full of awkward rhythmic turns and odd shifts in key, but the overall effect eerily gets under your skin and snakes into your head to induce an emotional response whether you want it or not. Creepy indeed. The rest of the album are all about the moments -- subtly breathtaking sound effects here and fractured hooks there, creating a whole greater than the parts -- a supergeek combo with killer chops poised for great things.
