NUMBER ONE RECORD, no. 9. The Shins, Oh, Inverted World. When I was keeping my ears out in the early 2000s I got one of those compilation CDs from Starbucks and it had “New Slang” on it which nearly instantly became, and I think remains, one of my all-time favorite songs. It kind of has a similar melody to an old instrumental from the sixties I loved as a kid called “Love Is Blue” (give it a YouTube!) but then it’s got these Dylan-esquely inscrutable lyrics that require/endure constant prodding and pondering and interpretation, and I love it, I loved it, I will always love it. It’s got that mix of optimism and melancholy that I dig, and a simple, straightforward arrangement. Anyway, Colin Dullaghan recommended this debut album when I told him how smitten I was with that song and I bought the CD and of course there’s nothing up to the level of “New Slang”—you can’t have lightning just keep hitting the same tree again and again—so I kind of let it fade in my CD stack and didn’t listen to it much. But then, there it was as an affordable LP one day with a cardboard-feeling art-project sleeve and recently I just slid it off the shelf for this “debut album” sub-grouping I’m on. And I listened to it kind of loud and it’s terrific. I have grown to love and expect James Mercer (the lead singer, also the lead songwriter of Broken Bells and other stuff I think and he shows up in Portlandia with Colin Meloy of The Decemberists I’m getting off track) ....I expect James Mercer to have weird craggy-peaked melodies that go all over yet are still “pop.” These songs do that, and this vinyl sounds great. I’m really glad I didn’t file it under “CDs I never listened to” when I had the chance to nab this. #theshins #ohinvertedworld #newslang #jamesmercer (at Noblesville, Indiana) https://www.instagram.com/p/CKvB7xyr-14/?igshid=25m308x35k22
