While ""Garden State"" remains steadfast as the self-awareness film of 2004, its staunch success with the ""myspace"" demographic propelled a particular band into immediate stardom—that band being, of course, the Shins. Even the Beatles cannot claim the honor of being recognized by Queen PadmAc Amidala, who, while disguised as Natalie Portman, had claimed in ""Garden State"" that the Shins would ""change your life, I swear."" Wincing The Night Away is not just the title of their album, but a direct implication of how the Shins reacted to this ""life-changer"" status summoned on to them by the intergalactic queen: toiling through roughly four years worth of song writing in hopes of not failing their honorable title. The end result: no epiphanies, but plenty of jivey tunes nevertheless.
""Sleeping Lessons"" and ""Australia"" supply a very exciting entrance to Wincing, where the coos of lead singer James Russell Mercer put him in the company of Bono and Mariah Carey. As exceedingly hyped up by the music world for the past few months, ""The Phantom Limb"" shines as the preliminary single from the record, yet sounds entirely too much like any other Shins song to really do the album any justice. To make up for this dud, the Shins return with an amazing track ""Red Rabbits,"" which also doubles as the most controversial song with the lyrics, ""So help me, I don't know, I might/ Just give the old dark side a try,"" as if they had to bring up the whole Anakin thing after Queen Amidala praised them so greatly.
As with most bands signed under the Sub Pop record label, it is crucial to include at least two or three tracks saturated with synthesizers and reverberation, and thus ""Black Wave"" and ""Split Needles"" glorify this unwritten stipulation. ""Girl Sailor"" and ""Turn On Me"" are fillers at best, yet portray many southern rock elements. The ""best song of them all"" crown goes to the closer, ""A Comet Appears,"" a song of wispy and enchanting melodies that act as an epilogue to ""New Slang""—better known as the one Shin's track that is used in countless emotional TV shows and movies (including ""Garden State"").
All sarcasm aside, Wincing is simply not the robust, ""life-changing"" album that everyone was hoping for. Instead, it is a rather discerning illustration of an extremely talented band feeling content with mediocrity. However, if you happen to be one of those ""Shin-heads"" who still buys music, Itunes is offering a special bonus track for Wincing called ""Nothing At All."" Judging by that title, The Shins sure seem thrilled about stickin' it to those downloader jerks.
