Hailed in some quarters as the saviours of US indie rock, this New Mexico quartet play uplifting melodic pop that should find favour much further around the globe. The follow-up to 2002's excellent Oh, Inverted World finds Albuquerque's finest further mining their own private bittersweet seam, kicking off with the pop turbulence of Kissing the Lipless and absurdly joyous Mine's Not a High Horse, before reaching another career peak with the dizzying exuberance of So Says I.
Although downbeat self-deprecation lurks in lines like "Left my home just to whine in this microphone," and there's a certain small-town romance vibe throughout, they're not averse to surprises. Saint Simon takes an American tourist to the Kinks' Muswell Hill. The rollercoasting Fighting in a Sack wrestles manfully with Dylan's harmonica. Most affectingly, the faintly disturbing acoustic Those to Come belies any suspicion that the Shins can only do happy or soppy.
