Long time running indie luminaries The Shins finally returned from a 5 years absence marked by frontman James Mercer undertaking an important side-project, casting Danger Mouse’s Brian Burton to form indie super group Broken Bells. In its 11th year of making, The Shins attempt to revive themselves to the thriving success of their debuts with a new chapter; that being the recording their fourth studio album, Port Of Morrow. If the band had accustomed us to an unprecedented production of prodigious musical gems over the years, it now seems the band’s decided to tone down the quest of an extensive stretch of musical boundaries that was their own. Port Of Morrow will, at first listen, appear as the most polished, studio-crafted work than any of their preceding efforts. However, it does not mean that The Shins did drop the hyper-creativeness that gave the band its renowned reputation. Port Of Morrow shines along with consistent song structure, revealing the band’s signature inspired lyrics and driven melodies. Most importantly on this record, a focus is brought on the instrumentation, where a wall of sound technique influence can be found and experienced. It may take a listener several listens to get into the twists and the hooks of it, but the great gift of this album is how we get a renewed experience of the songs each time, finding out the subtleties, catchy references, and multiple influences in their new sound. If it has not yet been done (as these songs are starting to become part of everyone’s summer playlists), I strongly recommend you to listen to “Riffle Spiral” and “Simple Song”, which could make up for being the catchiest sounding treats of the season. All in all, simple in its refined complexity.

We will be giving away one vynl copy of Port Of Morrow, visit our Twitter account @indctxposure.