Ranked: The Shins
Welcome to Ranked, our recurring series in which one of our writers takes an artist’s catalogue and ranks all of their official studio albums from most essential to least essential. The order is decided by the individual writer, rather than our editors. If you disagree with our ranking then please let us know in the comments section. This time Scott Dransfield ranks The Shins.
It seems impossible to write about The Shins without starting with a mention of the band’s first big exposure: Natalie Portman’s famous name-dropping of them in Zach Braff’s film Garden State, and the inclusion of two of their songs on the film’s trendsetting indie soundtrack. This is because in the beginning, The Shins, in the sound of their music, recording quality, and odd, whimsical lyrics, perfectly exuded the kind of quirkiness that movie needed. Subsequently, they were seized by a young generation and a music press hungry for an outfit that married an old-school ‘60s feel to lyrics that reflected the silly and scattered thoughts of kids with short attention spans. It’s hard to look back over the 13 years since that first album was released and not see the influence of The Shins written all over indie music.
Featuring one of indie rock’s most down-to-earth and likeable frontmen, James Mercer, The Shins established themselves early on as melodic powerhouses, and over the span of their career provided a constant output of quality. With the success of third album Wincing the Night Away (Sub Pop’s best first-week-charting album), the band had a promising future, only to be dissolved by Mercer and replaced with new members for a 2012 reunion. Now in 2014, with Mercer once again focusing on side project Broken Bells, it remains to be seen whether The Shins will continue, but at least they’ve left behind a legacy.
Ranking The Shins’ discography is simultaneously easy and difficult: easy, because it’s only four full-length albums long; and difficult, because all four albums are so near-perfect (yes, even 2012’s divisive Port of Morrow) that it’s tempting to just say they all tie for number one and call it quits. This list, however, will attempt to perform said ranking. Take it with a grain of salt.
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Comments
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February 18th 2014
5:46pm
I can forgive putting Chutes Too Narrow at the top, but rating Wincing the Night Away and Port of Morrow (!) above Oh, Inverted World is a decision of criminally poor taste.
August 9th 2014
6:20pm
Awesome! Its actually remarkable paragraph, I have got much clear idea concerning from this article.
December 21st 2014
8:16pm
My ranking is similar, but not identical: WTNA>CTN>OIW>POM
Wincing the Night Away is their Sergeant Pepper, innovative, eclectic, and conceptual.
Chutes Too Narrow is their Revolver, a tight album that came to be representative of their trademark sound.
Oh Inverted World is fairly hit and miss, but tracks like Caring Is Creepy and New Slang save it. And Girl Inform Me is their lyrical opus!
Port Of Morrow has Simple Song and No Way Down, but the rest is pretty insubstantial.
June 9th 2019
11:47am
gorontalo
June 10th 2019
10:33am
this is the best, Wincing the Night Away