Wincing The Night Away Image
  • Summary: The increasingly-popular indie-pop outfit led by James Mercer returns with a third album.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 31 out of 37
  2. Negative: 0 out of 37
  1. 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.
  2. Wincing the Night Away makes both [previous] albums sound like fragmented potential.
  3. 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.

See all 37 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 86 out of 99
  2. Negative: 8 out of 99
  1. MichaelC.
    9
    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. Expand
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  2. romanmc
    5
    Instantly forgetable first and then repeatedly forgetable after subsequent listens. "Australia" and "Sea Legs" are quality and salvage some measure of decency. I just think that this band could do a lot more with this record. They are good musicians, write inventive pop music and have one of the better pop/rock singers going. But someone needs to tell Mercer to stop writing lyrics like "dodo's cunundrum" and "fond of you, fond of y-o-u." And I don't think it's cute that "Phantom Limb" is supposed to be written from the perspective of teenage lesbians. Mercer's lyrics and storytelling tend to detract from what the whole of this group. He tries too hard to be obtuse. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. BillyG
    2
    While this album has good parts to it, the rest is a befuddled mess. The Shins get good ratings because people are under the impression that they are supposed to love the Shins, even when they are shitting in your ears. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 99 User Reviews

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