The moment of truth has arrived. It’s been two weeks and six articles since ScooterDMan and I began recapping 2007 in music and now we come to the final payoff. The apex. The number one album of the year. As always, ScooterDMan’s reaction to my pick lies below in green and his selection for number one is listed over on his column.

1. The Shins – Wincing the Night Away

Eleven months ago when I previewed the albums I was looking forward to in 2007 I predicted that if this record lived up to the Shins’ previous works it would, released in the first month of this year, hold up over the course of the proceeding weeks and months and appear once again on best-of lists come December. Clearly, it did not disappoint.

It debuted at number 2 on the Billboard charts - setting a record for any album released solely on the Sub Pop label - and while the group still utilized the alt.country, folk, and rock mix that made them underground (and eventually mainstream) staples over the past few years they refused to simply sit on their laurels. From the very first track, “Sleeping Lessons,” it was obvious that the Shins had decided to implement deeper production and a heavier use of electronics and effects. This could have easily killed the warm and inviting character of their music but clever arrangements and engaging rhythms combined with James Mercer’s evocative delivery instantly quelled all doubts. The heart and soul of the band remained untouched despite the increased studio fingerprint as “Australia” and “Red Rabbits” are both vintage Shins tracks.

Lyrically Mercer hasn’t lost a step as he continues, meditative, into a study of life and the human condition. He’s a hopeful spectator watching a downward spiral in “Girl Sailor”

And does anything I say seem relevant at all?
You’ve been at the helm since you were just five,
While I cannot claim to be more than a passenger,

But, you’ve won one too many fights,
Wearing all of your clothes at the same time,
Let the good times end tonight,
Oh girl, sail her, don’t sink her,
This time

he curses love in “Turn on Me”

So affections fade away,
And do adults just learn to play
The most ridiculous, repulsive games?
On the faith of ruddy sons,
And the double-barreled guns,
You better hurry,
Rabbit, run, run, run.
‘Cause meeting you was fun,
And there’s a lot of hungry howlers in this one cell.

and he delivers one of the most mournful, thoughtful songs of the year in “A Comet Appears.”

We can blow on our thumbs and posture,
But the lonely is such delicate things,
The wind from a wasp could blow them,
Into the sea,
With stones on their feet,
Lost to the light and the loving we need

I was blown away by Wincing the Night Away from my very first listen. After taking it off of a marathon rotation and delving into other releases over the course of the year I always returned to it, drawn deeper with each successive play. It’s only fitting, then, that this album now sits above the records that tried all year to supplant it. In a year of great music the Shins have proven once again that they are among the best.

ScooterDMan’s take: “This album is wonderful. Top 5 wonderful? Eh. Top 10 wonderful? Perhaps. But enough of that. No need to nitpick. I’ve loved The Shins ever since Natalie Portman told me to. James Mercer is a gifted songwriter, and Eric has provided some wonderful examples of his wordsmithery above. My favorite lines from this album also come from A Comet Appears (certainly one of the most beautiful and thought provoking songs of this year).

But with each turn,
It’s this front and center,
Like a dart stuck square in your eye,
Every post you can hitch your faith on,
Is a pie in the sky,
Chock full of lies,
A tool we devise,
To make sinking stones fly

Nothing makes us “new atheists” smile more than an occasional Dawkinsian nod from our favorite indie artists. Moving on, though I hold in great esteem the opening tracks, “Sleeping Lessons” and “Australia,” the middle of this record loses me a bit, and the uncomfortable similarities between the single, “Phantom Limb,” and the song that “made” The Shins, “New Slang,” is disconcerting. For me, this album definitely showcases in places why The Shins are one of the most consistently excellent indie rock acts today, it lacks the unifying glue that held together their previous two releases. But by all means, listen to it. I hear they have songs that could change your life.”

The Rest of Eric’s Top Ten:

2. Radiohead - In Rainbows
3. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
4. The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour
5. Menomena - Friend or Foe
6. The Narrator - All That to the Wall
7. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
8. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
9. The Forms - The Forms
10. Band of Horses - Cease to Begin

ScooterDMan’s Top Ten
1. Radiohead - In Rainbows
2. Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover
3. The National - Boxer
4. The Narrator - All That to the Wall
5. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
6. Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
7. Okkervil River - The Stage Names
8. Handsome Furs - Plague Park
9. Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
10. The Forms - The Forms

© Eric Atienza 2007 for Listen In. Some rights reserved.

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