The Shins--Overrated

I'll be coming out of my blogging hiatus once in a while over the next couple of months but it's hard to see too much happening until my dissertation is done, or at least all the drafts. Which I hope will be by the end of July.

But anyway, I finally just got around to listening to The Shins' Wincing the Night Away. I know that ever since "Garden State" came out, people have been talking about The Shins like they are America's greatest band. But listening to that album has helped me come to a conclusion I have been leaning toward for awhile--The Shins are highly overrated. More specifically, I think their music is just kind of boring. I'm not hearing any risks on the album at all. This may be a personal aesthetic choice as much as anything. They sound a lot like The Beach Boys to me and I never really got what was supposed to be so great about them either.

The Shins certainly don't fit into the wallpaper category of boring (see Norah Jones) but I don't see how people get really excited about them either. There's just not very much going on. When I think about it, a lot of The Shins fans I know aren't really big music people. I wonder if that matters. I suppose they are a pleasant and interesting enough band for someone who doesn't really want to think very hard about what they are listening to. I don't know that they are much more than that.

Since The Shins are pretty much the only band to ever make it big out of Albuquerque, I suppose I am committing some sort of heresy.