the Shins
Chutes Too Narrow
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Decrease Font SizeEditor's Review:
Sliding in at just over a half-hour, The Shins’ second Sub Pop release
immediately satisfies with whimsical melodies sung at nearly unreachable highs,
and an understanding that pop music need not push the boundaries in order to
push the right buttons. Listening to Chutes Too Narrow is like peeling
back the pages of a pop-rock history book, the varied styles of each song revealing
the diversity found in the realm of pop: the jubilant uptempo sneer of “Kissing
the Lipless”; the swagger and bounce of the Brit-pop-ish “So Says
I”; the acoustic, stripped down “Young Pilgrim” and “Pink
Bullets”; the violins, marching drum beat and Ben Folds-esque piano pop
of “Saint Simon”; the tearful two-part harmony and countrified pedal
steel guitar in “Gone For Good.” Mercer’s wordplay yields
a few true gems here and there; his melodies wafting classic themes, sinking
hooks with apt harmony and deft precision.
However, the album’s short running time, mixed with the dissimilarity
of each song robs Chutes Too Narrow of a sense of completion —
each song is singularly singable, but seemingly unrelated to the track which
precedes or follows. My main concern with this album is that it doesn’t
feel like an album; it plays more like a collection of singles and
EP tracks. But given the amount of pure pop potential twisting throughout Mercer’s
precious songs, the album’s lack of overall solidarity is but a minor
flaw.
– Maurice S. Teilmann
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 Record Label Sub Pop Released January 2004 |
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