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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
The Flake, fronted by James Mercer, were playing pure pop in Albuquerque (New Mexico) when the Brit-pop
stars were enjoying world headlines. But the Flakes were playing real pop,
not the adulterated version offered by the Oasis.
The single Mieke (Resin, 1993), the EP Spork (Science Project, 1995)
and the album Flake Music (Cargo, 1997)
are their personal tribute to Brian Wilson.
The EP Nature Bears A Vacuum (Omnibus, 1998), the album
When You Land Here (Omnibus, 1999) and the single
When I Goose Step (Omnibus, 2000)
refined the new concept.
The Shins were born out of the ashes of the Flake.
The only problem with Oh Inverted World (Subpop, 2001) is that
the pop is too poppy. There isn't a single note in the first eight songs
that one could define "original", "inventive", "bold".
This are third-rate melodies.
No doubt the Beatles would have salivated for New Slang,
and the Beach Boys would be proud of Girl Inform Me
but substance this is not.
Caring Is Creepy stands out as less predictable than the average.
One by One All Day sounds like an attemp to imitate the Byrds,
circa 1966.
The album was followed by the singles
Know Yr Onion and The Past and the Pending.
Shins' Chutes Too Narrow (Subpop, 2003) is a vast improvement
over the debut. It boasts simple but inventive arrangements, even occasionally
avantgarde (Kissing the Lipless, with off-kilter guitar riff and
screaming vocals),
and a stronger echo of psychedelic-era Byrds.
Highlights include the dreamy Mine's Not A High Horse, perhaps the most atmospheric song on the album, the breezy So Says I, the lyrical and neoclassical Saint Simon,
the gently teasing Turn a Square,
and the rocking Fighting In A Sack.
Launched in stardom stratosphere by the soundtrack to the Hollywood blockbuster "Garden State", the Shins took four years to make their third album,
Wincing The Night Away (Sub Pop, 2007), that debuted at number one on
Billboard's charts.
Nonetheless the quality of the music was still mediocre, with a handful of
pop tunes (Sleeping Lessons, Phantom Limb,
Black Wave) still charting a well trodden territory,
and only Sea Legs showing production ambition.
James Mercer joined forces with hip-hop producer Danger Mouse
of Gnarls Barkley to create
Broken Bells (Columbia, 2010), a tour de force of
musical stereotypes of the past. Unfortunately, only the first three songs
are worth listening to:
the rousing singalong The High Road, sung at a solemn Band-like pace,
Vaporize, which exudes Sixties-style electric organ exuberance,
and the bubblegum and pre-beat pop ditty Your Head Is On Fire.
This should have been an EP.
Its follow-up, After the Disco (2014), is another blatant plariazing
effort, borrowing
the idea of Perfect World
from synth-pop of the 1980s,
the flavor of After The Disco
(and of the lame single Holding On For Life)
from the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever,
the melody of Control from the Eagles' Hotel California
the choral singalong of No Matter What You're Told from David Bowie's All The Young Dudes, etc.
Broken Bells had simply progressed from the 1960s to the 1970s.
For a modicum of originality, try instead the plantation lament
Leave It Alone and the soul lullaby The Angel And The Fool.
Lush arrangements and a retro fixation permeate
Port of Morrow (Aural Apothecary, 2012) by the
increasingly Mercer-centric Shins, but the number of significant songs per
album was rapidly declining.
The leading single Simple Song is a random blend of pop stereotypes.
The idea behind several songs
(like the Caribbean-tinged Bait and Switch)
is embarrassingly trivial.
The Shins move into adult lounge pop with the
spare country-ish serenade September and
the mellow syncopated ballad 40 Mark Strasse.
Few albums sounded more boring in 2012.
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