The Shins

Chutes Too Narrow

(Sub Pop)

On the Shins’ 2001 debut album Oh! Inverted World, “New Slang” perfectly captured the mood of a man who, though not wallowing in a bygone love, constantly glanced backward and lived in its shadow. On Chutes Too Narrow, Mercer projects the image of a changed man from the moment a brash electric guitar breaks in to start “Kissing the Lipless.”

On tracks like “So Says I” and “Turn a Square,” the Shins use electric and acoustic guitar, drums and sometimes keyboard in classic pop rhythms and catchy hooks which bring merit to the Beach Boys comparisons. Though this certainly shows the band is capable of stylistic evolution, it’s the more soothing tracks which showcase not only the best musical moments on the album, but lyrical development as well.

“Saint Simon” is the true gem, a moderately paced tune which begins with the simple harmonies of a ’60s Beatles song and effortlessly transitions into a mesmerizing, haunting melody which Mercer hums over romantic strings. When the instrumentation takes a back seat to Mercer’s voice, the Shins’ poetry shines through, showing how the band’s ideology has changed.

The recognition, “We’d like to go the distance but not a one of us is going to,” on “Mine’s Not a High Horse,” becomes both cold and heartening in this context; it’s a statement of failure, but also of the possibilities admission of failure brings. On Chutes Too Narrow, the Shins prove that, though singing about heartbreak can be beautiful, wiser hindsight can make melodies just as well.