Elegant Hands Unemployed

The Shins “Painting A Hole (Flipped)”

The new Shins record is exactly the same as the last Shins record, at least in terms of the songs on it. James Mercer approached The Worm’s Heart as a formal challenge, to take the material he wrote for Heartworms and rearrange them to the point that they feel like substantially different songs while retaining their melodies and structure. I appreciate this concept, especially since a lot of artists now tend to think of their songs as being entirely tied to arrangement and production decisions. (I’ve seen far too many acts go through tedious lengths to replicate or replay studio sounds and programming in concert rather than just play a revised arrangement that makes sense on stage.)

I find that my favorites on The Worm’s Heart are also my favorites on Heartworms, and the alternate arrangements haven’t made me enjoy songs I wasn’t super into the first time around. The songs are the songs are the songs. The interesting difference between these two records is that the arrangements on Heartworms are far more consistent with what anyone would expect of The Shins, but the Worm’s Heart versions push in less familiar directions while still essentially sounding like a Shins record. I’m particularly fond of the way the new arrangements for “Painting A Hole” and “Name for You” nod in the direction of synth-heavy goth music, and swaps the band’s default twee psychedelia for a cold, melancholy moodiness. “Painting A Hole” is particularly interesting, as it cycles from bleak folk to channeling The Cure to ending on a spacey instrumental section that wouldn’t be out of place on a Pink Floyd record.

Buy it from Amazon.