Album Review: THE SHINS

Album reviews by ACID
Artiste: The Shins
Album: Port of Morrow
Label: Aural Apothecary/Columbia/Sony Music

I’VE been listening to too much crap on the radio. That’s about the only thought that ran through my head after I had a first listen to Port of Morrow, the latest album by the Albuerquerque, New Mexico band The Shins.

Fronted by vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter James Mercer, The Shins has had a nine year history that is sometimes meandering but has never failed to dull. The details of all that are plonked onto reference sites, but for this album itself was released through the talented Mercer’s Aural Apothecary label.

The Shins’ history has seen the entry and exits of various musicians, and this time around Port of Morrow features Jessica Dobson, Richard Swift as fellow songwriters, drummer Joe Plummer (formerly of Modest Mouse) and the Crystal Skulls’ Yuuki Mathews. Yet through it all, you still have the funniest, faintest idea that sometimes, The Shins should’ve just been called Jimmy Mercer & The Band – he dominates through the entire 10-track album that much.

Jaded and autumnal at times, wistful but never earnest, Port Morrow’s songs contain well-crafted lyrics and simple though impressionable melodies that linger with you long after the song has ended, right from the dirty-bass’ed opener The Rifle’s Spiral itself.

Together with the dark honey of Mercer’s vocals, the lyrics however, are pointed, mildly galling, which makes an interesting juxtaposition between melody and words. Here’s an example: in No Way Down, Mercer sings “Out beyond the western squalls in an alien land they work for nothing at all, they don’t know the mall or the lay-away plan”.

Over and all, this is not the kind of album that grabs you immediately but lures you and lulls you into loving them – but loving them for the long term. And why did I write  I’d been listening to too much crap on the radio? Well, when you come across material like Port of Morrow, the difference is as stark as it can be, and is a truly sweet reminder of what else is out there. This is actually my first introduction to The Shins but I think the acquaintance will be a long one.

Album Review - BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

Album reviews by ACID
Artiste: BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Album: Wrecking Ball
Label: Columbia/Sony Music

WHAT do we say next of America’s favourite working class hero, Bruce Springsteen? He’s sung all the gritty tales of hard knocks, rough living, gruffer emotions for so long. Even more so in the shadow of the fading of the American dream for so many living there, Springsteen’s songs become all the more touching, all the more poignant.

Wrecking Ball opens with the unapologetic-ally jangly, prideful We Take Care of Our Own. But upon listening closely, you get the feeling that a grim layer of strength and fortitude runs through the entire album like a fine underlying thread (as they do for many of his efforts). The second track is truly the one that opens to a wonderful panoply matching lyrics of the hardy, working man and some unexpected pairings – a hearty fiddle in Easy Money and a rather down-home foot stomp-er Shackled and Drawn.

Jack of All Trades is sorrowful, moving – and all beautiful. Springsteen’s vocals lose no power and retains the full gamut of masculine emotion. “We stood the drought, now we’ll stand the flood”,” he sings, and the listener bears the weight of the full honesty of his delivery. Death to my Hometown, again, is another interesting juxtaposition – all the woes of the grittiest of the hoi polloi but put in a gruff, brave (oh, how brave) delivery that is rousing and inspiring.

The late Clarence Clemmons, the saxophonist of the E Street Band is specially featured in a heartfelt Land of Hope and Dreams as well. Springsteen also pays fond tribute to his old friend and fellow musician at the end.

Look out for two bonus tracks, Swallowed up (In the Belly of the Whale), which is not a pseudo-Jonah-esque paean but rather, almost part dirge and part hymn, of the loss of innocence and confidence, even as it clings on to the faintest of hopes.

Wrecking Ball is another winner,  and perhaps one of Springsteen’s strongest albums about modern urban Americana ever.  It’s unapologetic, grim, tough, honest. And completely gorgeous.