Album review: Port of Morrow by The Shins

By Hunter Moore

Port of Morrow
by The Shins
Release date: 20 March 2012

After a five-year break and one or two intriguing side projects, indie pop hero James Mercer returns to power this spring with his Portland-based band The Shins and their fourth LP, optimistically titled Port of Morrow (assumedly a reference to Oregon’s own port authority). The boys (or, rather, the men, seeing as they’re all about 40 years old) sound sanitary, polished, and even futuristic on Port; the arrangements are simple but the vocals are squeaky-clean, and the guitars and drums stay loud and busy for a good two-thirds of the record. On more than a few tracks, the band gets some assistance from relatively new member Jessica Dobson. She provides guitar and backing vocals, even going so far as to release a shrill, endearing falsetto on the title track.

The production on this thing is affable if not exactly enjoyable. More than half the tracks here have in their possession a certain flatness that cannot be helped. Award-winning pop aficionado/producer Greg Kurstin (Lily Allen, Sia) adds little to the mix, making for a fairly straightforward pop-rock album. It should also be noted that this is the band’s first outing without Sub Pop Records (who made The Shins a household name in the indie community back in 2002), instead opting for distribution through Columbia Records and release through Mercer’s own label, Aural Apothecary.

Thank goodness the songs on Port of Morrow are so darn catchy. In the five years since the last Shins album, 2007’s Wincing the Night Away, Mercer has only slightly lost his touch for clever, self-reflexive, sometimes precociously abstract songwriting; there are treats to be found in tracks like “September,” “For a Fool,” the title track, and the first single, “Simple Song.” These are songs that could’ve found their way onto the previous couple Shins albums, including Wincing and 2003’s Chutes Too Narrow. Or perhaps they could’ve been psyched out and featured on Mercer’s 2010 collaboration with Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton, Broken Bells.

In the eleven years since they arrived on the scene with 2001’s Oh, Inverted World, Mercer and the gang have neither moved forward nor taken a step backward. They’re kind of sort of maybe famous now. After the immensely popular Garden State soundtrack in 2004 (who didn’t love Natalie Portman’s smile when she was listening to “New Slang”?) and much collaboration amongst fellow artists, does the band address any super-relevant issues or face any unwieldy demons? Do the members downplay their shining, shimmery indie pop aesthetic that got them so recognizable in the first place? Not really. With some unexpected electronic influence and a few memorable melodies, the Shins deliver an agreeable product on their new LP. Nicely performed and pleasantly surprising, there is definitely some colloquial gold to be found in the Port of Morrow.