During the indie pop folk craze that dominated the early 2000’s, The Shins were gigantic. It’s pretty much impossible for anyone in my generation to not at least be vaguely familiar with the two singles “Caring Is Creepy” and “New Slang” based off their prominence in the Garden State film featuring Zach Braff, Natalie Portman, and Peter Sarsgaard. The scene where Braff’s character Andrew first meets Portman’s character Sam is iconic, with Sam uttering “You gotta hear this one song, it’ll change your life I swear” before putting headphones on Andrew’s head while “New Slang” plays. It’s cemented in millennial’s collective consciousness in a way that not many songs are. Twenty years later it almost feels like a product placement re-watching that scene. And it’s just as impactful as it ever was.
The rest of Oh, Inverted World is a solid effort in the indie folk genre. A fun fact about this album is that it was actually primarily recorded in lead singer/songwriter James Mercer’s basement ahead of the band actually getting signed to a proper label. Once the lead single “New Slang” had been released as a single it kicked off a bidding war for the band, with famed Northwest label Sub Pop Records eventually winning the rights to release and distribute the album.
Standout Songs: “Caring Is Creepy”, “New Slang”, “The Past and Pending”
