Click here for photos of The Shins at 2013 Boston Calling Festival in Boston, MA
Click here for photos of The Shins at 2012 Osheaga Music Festival in Montreal, PQ, Canada
Click here for photos of The Shins at Iroquois Amphitheater in Louisville, KY on June 9th, 2012
Click here for photos of The Shins at 2012 Sasquatch! Festival in George, WA
Click here for photos of The Shins at Grand Sierra Resort & Casino in Reno, NV on April 25th, 2012
Click here for photos of The Shins at 2012 Coachella Festival in Indio, CA
Click here for QRO’s review of The Shins on Austin City Limits on March 18th, 2012
Click here for photos of The Shins at (le) Poisson Rouge in New York, NY on March 7th, 2012
Click here for photos of The Shins at 2011 POPPED! Festival in Philadelphia, PA
Click here for QRO’s review of The Shins at Theater at Madison Square Garden on March 14th, 2007
A lot has happened in half a decade. Hipster kids have ditched guitars, and replaced them with micro-synths and Ableton. Along with the likes of Beck (QRO album review) and Sufjan Stevens (QRO live review), The Shins have moved forward successfully whilst retaining a refreshingly guitar-centred palette, exhibited on their first album in five years, Port of Morrow. Their last album, 2007’s Wincing The Night Away (QRO review) left many yearning for more. Their fourth addition to their catalogue will provoke very much the same response.
Hardly a prolific group, the wait has been worth it for this collection of modern pop tunes. From the opening notes of the gritty “The Rifle’s Spiral” to departing gently through the “Port of Morrow”, an adventurous and captivating musical spirit is sustained. Singles “Simple Song” and “It’s Only Life” accurately represent the entirety of an excellent album, instead of covering up ‘filler’. Port of Morrow feels new and familiar, comfortable and intriguing. Perhaps, there is a sense of the well worn, symptomatic of a lack of development or not ‘keeping with the times.’ Regardless, James Mercer’s song-writing genius utterly supplants that potential, evidenced on “For a Fool” and “40 Mark Strasse”.
Additionally, Port of Morrow has a wonderful narrative thread of love and domesticity throughout. Far from the extravagant story of ‘love so powerful you want to die’, á-la the trite and trashy Lana Del Rey (QRO album review), Mercer’s is simple, accurate and understated. Finally, there is a constant binary being played with and broken down: the beautiful and the weird, and where the two interlace, to make a wonderfully witty and eloquent record.
MP3 Stream: “For a Fool“
