If 2007 proves to be the vintage year it is shaping up to be, then The Shins' Wincing The Night Away will be one of many albums we look back at in 40 years time grimacing that 'they don't make them like that anymore'. James Mercer and his band have never put a foot wrong across all three of their LPs, and there's nothing that isn't sumptuous about the second single from their latest masterpiece.
All the regular ingredients are here: Mercer's Godly falsetto, up-tempo Smiths-like guitar jangling, (but with twice the melody of that band) and intelligent and ambiguous lyrics. There appears to be very little actually relating to Australia, unless you count the opening lines: "Born to multiply/Born to gaze at night skies". Australians are certainly born, are encouraged to multiply in order to fill the massive landscape and their cricket teams, and their night skies, with shooting stars and the Southern Cross, are most lovely.
In fact, the song is apparently about a nasty woman Mercer used to work with in an office who was embittered by a hateful job and a loveless personal life. "Your nightmares only take a year or two to unfold" he sings. If only the rest of us office monkeys could reap revenge in song. Thanks James.
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