The Shins

The unique Special Relationship between Britain and the US works like this. We say "Yes Sir" to everything The US Military asks for. Then we get to send our boxers over the Atlantic to be painfully found out by their superior American fighters and in exchange they send us their geeky alt rock bands. Weezer, Ween, They Might Be Giants and now The Shins.

Thing is though, I do like The Shins...so I'm not going to slap them around too much. I first heard the single Phantom Limb last December and it was one of those songs that I instantly fell in love with.

I loved its mix of Jesus and Mary Chain fuzziness, Morrisseyesque phrasing, Beach Boys clear vocals and intriguing lyrics. I got there a bit late though. The Shins love in had already started and I was still wearing my coat. They'd already released two albums and the third was imminent. Now they're here amongst us, on tour....in all their Beardo US Alternative Geekery.

The band formed in 1997 in Albuquerque as a side project for vocalist and songwriter James Mercer who was playing in Flake.

The debut Oh Inverted World came out in 2001 followed by Chutes Too Narrow in 2003. Both albums were well received but the band band’s debut was given a massive boost by the line in the film Garden State when Natalie Portman's character says that The Shins song New Slang "Will change your life".

It also crops up in a Sopranos episode. It's a great tune that fades in as an acoustic picking Simon and Gunfuklesome slice of small town American Pie. It's beardy and Byrdsy with a low key crooned vocal style and some really good lyrics

"Gold teeth and a curse for this town were all in my mouth" and "God speed all the bakers at dawn, May they all cut their thumbs, And bleed into their buns"

Melodically it's one of their most straightforward songs without their usual tricky twists and turns. The atmosphere comes from the vocal style itself and the warm sound of the lo fi production.

God Inform Me has a Beach Boys type melody, while Pressed In A Book has a Small Faces type sound that contrasts with the high clear vocals. Your Algebra is the albums token bit of weirdness.

The Shins approach to song writing then is to mix up a lot of quite different and often quite English styles. You can hear the influence of The Smiths, or The Cure's poppier singles. The melody lines get complicated and even when it's still verse chorus/verse chorus, there are often so many vocal twists that it takes a few listens before you know where the song is going to go. So you've got to put a bit of effort into it.

2003's Chutes Too Narrow starts tremendously with the splendidly titled Kissing The Lipless. It's got that fuzzy guitar squeal like Buffalo Springfield's Mr Soul or The Flying Burritos Christine's Tune. Which is good...unlike the synth sound on Mines Not A High Horse which verges on the Ultravox and The Full Midge Ure horror. (great crossword clues of our time for a 5 letter word beginning with M. Something small and annoying about Ultravox?) The other elements of the song with its acoustic guitar and tumbling drums sound fine though.

Turn A Square is a lusty song about lust. It's got a great circular riff, coiling round the song like a leery Weezer "Just a glimpse of an ankle and I React like it's 1805".

So Says I is another really convoluted but impossibly catchy melody...you may need a map to see where it's going but it does sound great. It starts like AC/DC but has chiming guitars and that fuzzy Mr Soul sound again.

Wincing The Night Away came out this year and of all the three albums it is the most successful blend yet of their characteristic mix of the tuneful and contrary. Much of the recording was done at Mercer's house.

Opening track Sleeping Lessons starts with the treated keyboard arpeggios that sound like a doo wop Mr Sandman before it goes all a bit Keane/Snow Patrol.

Australia has a fine Pretenders style twangy guitar break, and then with the bass scampering excitedly round Mercer's ankles he goes for the full Morrissey lyrical treatment.

"Been alone since you were twenty-one, You haven't laughed since January. You try and make like this is so much fun, But we know it to be quite contrary".

Sea Legs has a Morrissey yodel and Red Rabbits has another wandering melody with a Teardrop Explodes/Lori and the Chameleons keyboard sound and a mix of slide and pedal steel guitar.

Turn On Me is terrific guitar pop, with understated keyboards and something of the feel of Steve Harley's Come Up And See Me.

But for all the other reference points that you can spot, and for all the Pop that they've evidently soaked up and then tried to squeeze out as something new, the Shins still have that American college band feel. Part of that feel is due to the vocals; that high, American singing style. Is it a whine or a plea? The Shins are cleverer than the last lot they sent us...and it's still a sound we like. I may have been late arrival at the Shins love in, but I'm here now...and I'm down to my socks.