Music
All-Time High (And Low) Scores
Best Of 2009
Best Of 2008
Best Of 2007
Best Of 2006
Best Of 2005
Best Of 2004
Best Of 2003
Best Of 2002
Best Of 2001
Best Of 2000
Upcoming &
Recent Releases
70
AFI
65
Air
71
Alice In Chains
77
Amerie
70
Anjulie
85
The Antlers![]()
75
Arctic Monkeys
68
As Tall As Lions
82
Atlas Sound![]()
75
The Avett Brothers
67
Backstreet Boys
56
Bad Lieutenant
68
Devendra Banhart
72
Lou Barlow
88
Baroness![]()
69
Basement Jaxx
81
David Bazan![]()
72
Brendan Benson
72
The Big Pink
96
Big Star![]()
46
Billy Talent
75
The Black Crowes
51
Black Mold
59
Amanda Blank
68
Blitzen Trapper
75
BLK JKS
77
A.A. Bondy
73
The Bottle Rockets
63
Box Elders
65
Boys Like Girls
76
Brand New
73
Tyondai Braxton
87
Brother Ali![]()
70
Ian Brown
75
Michael Buble
78
Built To Spill
61
Colbie Caillat
79
Califone
68
Mariah Carey
84
Brandi Carlile![]()
73
Julian Casablancas
83
Rosanne Cash![]()
69
Castanets
65
The Cave Singers
84
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis![]()
79
Vic Chesnutt
75
Choir Of Young Believers
81
Circulatory System![]()
68
The Clean
84
The Clientele![]()
71
Cobra Starship
85
Converge![]()
71
Eric Copeland
80
Cymbals Eat Guitars
71
Datarock
59
Dead By Sunrise
76
Dead Man's Bones
64
Desolation Wilderness
88
Destroyer![]()
63
The Dodos
77
Drive-By Truckers
74
The Duke & The King
66
Bob Dylan
44
The Entrance Band
67
Esser
69
Fanfarlo
63
Felix Da Housecat
68
Fink
78
The Flaming Lips
66
Flight Of The Conchords
79
Florence And The Machine
67
John Fogerty
77
Fruit Bats
83
Fuck Buttons![]()
71
Nelly Furtado
47
Gary Go
68
Ghostface Killah
79
Girls
59
Gloriana
69
Gossip
62
David Gray
66
David Guetta
79
Richard Hawley
74
Mayer Hawthorne
66
Headlights
79
HEALTH
77
Joe Henry
66
Hockey
69
Whitney Houston
68
Imogen Heap
59
Jack Ingram
79
Islands
73
Jessie James
74
Jamie T
83
Japandroids![]()
65
Jay-Z
51
Jet
69
Daniel Johnston
76
Karen O And The Kids
72
Toby Keith
69
Kid Cudi
65
Kings Of Convenience
62
Sean Kingston
64
KISS
76
Kris Kristofferson
68
KRS-One & Buckshot
76
La Roux
84
Miranda Lambert![]()
72
Ledisi
75
Sondre Lerche
56
Juliette Lewis
82
Lightning Bolt![]()
76
Lightning Dust
73
Little Dragon
44
Pixie Lott
73
Lyle Lovett
66
Lovvers
75
Baaba Maal
77
Madness
84
Madonna![]()
85
Manic Street Preachers![]()
62
Maps
55
Massive Attack
57
Matisyahu
67
Reba McEntire
66
Tim McGraw
65
Brian McKnight
79
Mew
77
Malcolm Middleton
77
Mika
68
Amy Millan
76
Mission Of Burma
73
Modest Mouse
76
Molina And Johnson
80
Monsters Of Folk
62
Morrissey
85
Mount Eerie![]()
78
The Mountain Goats
62
Múm
72
Muse
66
Willie Nelson
78
Nirvana
97
Nirvana![]()
72
Nisennenmondai
80
No Age
71
Noah And The Whale
75
Noisettes
79
Nudge
68
Nurses
47
Dolores O'Riordan
74
Os Mutantes
73
Osso
81
Owen![]()
76
Paramore
76
Pastels And Tenniscoats
51
Sean Paul
80
Pearl Jam
66
Jemina Pearl
72
Jack Penate
65
Phish
82
Pissed Jeans![]()
61
Pitbull
79
A Place To Bury Strangers
63
Julian Plenti
66
Robert Pollard
79
Polvo
72
Porcupine Tree
80
Q-Tip
80
R.E.M.
89
Raekwon![]()
69
Rain Machine
70
Ramona Falls
75
Dizzee Rascal
75
The Raveonettes
76
Jay Reatard
82
Reigning Sound![]()
81
Rodrigo Y Gabriela![]()
79
Russian Circles
69
Buffy Sainte-Marie
73
Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions
61
Sally Shapiro
78
Shudder To Think
75
Sian Alice Group
70
Simian Mobile Disco
58
Simple Minds
72
Six Organs Of Admittance
69
Slaughterhouse
80
Slayer
61
The Slits
62
Mindy Smith
83
Solillaquists Of Sound![]()
78
Soulsavers
77
Speech Debelle
58
Spiral Stairs
58
Squarepusher
55
Steel Panther
73
Sufjan Stevens
52
Rod Stewart
65
Joss Stone
75
George Strait
83
Barbra Streisand![]()
76
A Sunny Day In Glasgow
74
Susanna And The Magical Orchestra
78
The Swell Season
76
David Sylvian
83
Taken By Trees![]()
78
Tegan And Sara
68
The Temper Trap
72
Themselves
82
They Might Be Giants![]()
67
Third Eye Blind
68
Throw Me The Statue
66
J Tillman
69
Times New Viking
57
Tokio Hotel
67
Trey Songz
71
The Twilight Sad
58
Carrie Underwood
56
The Used
68
Various Artists
70
Various Artists
74
Various Artists
77
The Very Best
71
Kurt Vile
67
Vivian Girls
71
Volcano Choir
76
Rufus Wainwright
59
Weezer
80
White Denim
76
Why?
83
Wild Beasts![]()
80
Wildbirds & Peacedrums
59
Andrew W.K.
71
Patrick Wolf
67
Wolfmother
84
The xx![]()
70
YACHT
75
Yim Yames
79
Yo La Tengo
83
Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band![]()
51
Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson
59
Zero 7
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
Wincing The Night Away

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 37 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 140 votes
Read user comments
Rate this album >
Album Info
Label: Sub Pop
Release Date: 23 January 2007
Discs: 1 disc
Genre(s): Indie, Rock
Summary
The increasingly-popular indie-pop outfit led by James Mercer returns with a third album.
Also By This Artist: Chutes Too Narrow
Also On The Web: Official Artist Site The Shins @ MySpace The Shins @ Sub Pop
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Austin Chronicle
Wincing the Night Away makes both [previous] albums sound like fragmented potential.
Read Full Review >musicOMH.com
It's much less forthright and immediate than Inverted or Chutes, but it succeeds in spinning a web that draws you in; once caught you just want to lie back and absorb its gentle bounce.
Read Full Review >Stylus Magazine
What really makes Wincing the Night Away succeed is how the Shins’ moneymaker templates evolve into more complex tapestries. In a manner similar to the New Pornos, the third album becomes the most successful due to an implied heft that comes from a concerted effort to sound like a band rather than a singer-songwriter vehicle.
Read Full Review >Drowned In Sound
If Oh, Inverted World and Chutes Too Narrow were like ADHD-riddled cousins, unable to inhabit their own thoughts for longer than a few seconds at a time, then Wincing The Night Away is the Ritalin-gorged riposte. Its bounce is more bleary-eyed; its euphoric bouts tempered by a weird, waking-dream sensation that some dark presence is stalking the peripheries of its foggy vision.
Read Full Review >Under The Radar
A layered and beautiful work that solidifies The Shins as The Band That Matters. [#16, p.94]
Lost At Sea
Wincing The Night Away covers all the bases and proves what loyal followers have known all along, that The Shins are, for better or worse, rock stars.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club)
Mainly, the new disc is just more tentative than Chutes Too Narrow, with a lot of songs—like the first single, "Phantom Limb"—sounding like foggier, heavier versions of what The Shins have done before.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly
When he's on, Mercer is a great songwriter, crafting classic pop-rock melodies that leap across octaves and twist in unexpected directions.
Read Full Review >Slant Magazine
If the album isn't quite up to the lofty standards of their earlier work, it isn't off by much, meaning that Wincing The Night Away gives 2007 its first great pop record.
Read Full Review >Dot Music
"Wincing The Night Away" shows The Shins as fleet-footed and supremely confident, their slightly off-beat sensibility happily uncompromised by its (newly) gleaming production and overall panoramic bigness.
Read Full Review >NOW Magazine
Not everything works... but even the flawed experiments make for an enjoyable listen.
Read Full Review >All Music Guide
Wincing the Night Away is the sound of the Shins acknowledging where they've been and moving on to new territory, and while it probably won't change your life, it probably will make it more enjoyable.
Read Full Review >PopMatters
Even the punchiest tracks are cast in navy blues and ink blacks. As such, it’s ever-so-slightly less immediately pleasing as 2003’s Chutes Too Narrow and the debut Oh, Inverted World. But the growth in Mercer’s songwriting, and the band’s precision and versatility, are also readily apparent.
Read Full Review >Q Magazine
Wincing The Night Away is super-smart pop music the way they (Brits, mainly) used to make it 20 years ago. [Feb 2007, p.100]
Billboard
A quietly ambitious effort that nudges the Shins' trademark indie pop into unexpected new directions.
Read Full Review >Uncut
Wincing isn't so much a departure as it is an all-out augmentation, taking the best things about The Shins and amplifying them. [Feb 2007, p.72]
Mojo
There are twists, but no clutter, just a gentle lyricism leaving every song lit from the inside. [Feb 2007, p.100]
Los Angeles Times
Mercer's a knotty lyricist, favoring arcane language but not old-fashioned storytelling, so it's sometimes hard to trace what's going on beneath all the ambience.
Read Full Review >Prefix Magazine
Wincing the Night Away suffers from a fair deal of uncharacteristic filler.
Read Full Review >cokemachineglow
For every elastic, tuneful, vacuum-packed “Phantom Limb” or “Australia” -- pop craftsmanship of the highest order, redolent of Chutes’ front-to-back triumph, crystalline, flawless and packed so thick with thoughts and words and hooks that they unravel marvelously indefinitely -- there’s an obvious b-side.
Read Full Review >Almost Cool
WIncing The Night Away as a whole is both inconsistent and even odd in sequencing.
Read Full Review >The New York Times
Like the other Shins albums, this one is sneaky; it takes hold slowly but insistently. [22 Jan 2007]
Blender
All that carefulness turns out to be bloodless. [Mar 2007, p.139]
Delusions of Adequacy
Wincing The Night Away has enough dreamy, jangly and melodic indie-pop that almost lives up to the hype and will leave swirling, seraphic sensations playing inside your head.
Read Full Review >BBC collective
The production is smoother, but when Sleeping Lessons morphs from an opiate dream to a riffing stomp with such exhilarating economy, or Red Rabbits wraps drunkenly swaying strings around yet another firmament-bound chorus, you can forgive an occasional excess of slickness.
Read Full Review >ShakingThrough.net
The hooks are much more muted than on the band’s debut Oh, Inverted World, and overall Wincing the Night Away assumes a less assertive stance than sophomore standout Chutes Too Narrow.
Read Full Review >Pitchfork
Wincing the Night Away is a lovely and well-executed album and-- for the first time in the band's career-- nothing more.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone
Wincing the Night Away feels labored. Gracefully realized though it is, you can hear the three-plus years Mercer spent pondering how to satisfy the expectations his surprise classic had created -- and also how to remain fresh and true to himself.
Read Full Review >Spin
Wincing is a purposefully low-impact affair. [Jan 2007, p.87]
Alternative Press
[It] feels more put-on than intimate, more tried than true. [Feb 2007, p.109]
Amazon.com
Wincing is neither the clever genre recombinant exercise of their second album nor is it the perfect little self-contained universe of their debut. This is not the Shins' best album; it's their growing pains third record.
Read Full Review >Playlouder
I usually find Shins albums grow on me slowly but surely yet after a good dozen plays I feel my faith isn't being repaid this time, and as a fan that's frustrating.
Read Full Review >Dusted Magazine
Wincing the Night Away feels a little paunchy, a little resigned – this is music that not only is mature enough to know that it can’t change the world, but is content to not try.
Read Full Review >Village Voice
While Mercer's writing is still more satisfying than that of his peers, filler tunes like "Pam Berry" and "Black Wave" are a far cry from the tenacious stuff that made Chutes the subject of lavish hyperbole.
Read Full Review >The Guardian
There's something about this album that militates against devotion: a coolness that dampens the indie-pop energy and threatens to leave listeners entirely unmoved.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this album is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 140 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
George C. gave it a2:
This is a plea to stand-in guitarist Eric Johnson. Please Eric... please resurrect Fruit Bats before these douchebags end up dragging you and your creativity into the turd basket with them, and before Marty tries to beat up your girlfriend.
Michael C. gave it a9:
The second half of the album trails off in to okay, but kind of generic and bland pop music. But the first half is so mindblowingly good, I could care less. Sleeping Lessons, Australia, and Phantom Limb are among my favorite songs of the year. The Shins can make some incredible music.
anon ymous gave it a10:
the shins are at their best, in my mind, when experimenting with many different genres in 1 album. in wincing the night away, the shins have a song for every mood, and the music flows almost as well as one their first 2 albums. The shins are a playful indie rock group, and analyzing the singles only kills it. To enjoy this album, you have to just listen and let yourself be swept away.
yngve l. gave it a10:
Probably the best album of 2007!!!
Jack N gave it a10:
The Shins are an acquired taste, they are one of those bands you either love or hate. I love them, so you can tell this will be bias. I think this is as good if not better than Chutes To Narrow, it seems like the best parts of their first two combined and built upon. The only problem I have is Sea Legs, it is the only song they have written that I skip, but the rest definitely make it better than a lot of the crap that people put out now.
john gave it an8:
Sounds like the past 2 records with a higher budget and the edges smoothed out.
Pete S gave it a10:
Easily the best walking-around-to music in quite some time. Eclipses Chutes as their best effort...lyrics are just as good, but the surrounding instrumentation blows it away.
