darragh murray

In answering this post’s title question, I’m not exactly sure. What I am sure of is that the Shins write some pretty damn good songs. James Mercer, the lead singer and songwriter writes lyrics that make me feel severely inadequate by comparison. While I’m not going to write any lengthy essay on “why I like the shins and think they’re awesome”, I’m just going to highlight a few of my favourite tracks of their various albums, I recommend, if you haven’t already, to look into purchasing some of them.

The Shins – Oh! Inverted World (2002).
Their debut album that was popularised by the movie “Garden State”. Drips with reverb and features keyboards at the forefront. Songs of note include:

• Caring is Creepy
• One By One All Day
• Know Your Onion
• New Slang
• Girl Inform Me

The Shins – Chutes Too Narrow (2005)
The sophomore release, and the LP that initially caught my ear. Variety of styles with emphasis on guitars (yee-hawr!). Songs of note:

• Kissing the Lipless
• Saint Simon
• Turn a Square
• So Says I
• Mine’s Not a High Horse

The Shins – Wincing the Night Away (2007)
Third album. Not as good as the previous too, but has some good songs, which include:

• Australia
• Phantom Limb
• Turn on Me
• A Comet Appears
• Girl Sailor

I was having a discussion with my flat mates as to the best Shins album, and it seemed that I was universally opposed in my endorsement of “Chutes Too Narrow” as the pre-eminent Shins release, them preferring the debut “Oh! Inverted World”. Fair enough, that’s just fine. I still think they’re both wrong.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 16th, 2007 at 11:26 am and is filed under DM Reviews Everything, music, tunes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.