When I was a sophomore in high school, a Swedish foreign exchange student moved to town and immediately joined my class. This girl arrived completely unexpectedly, caught a few peoples’ attention and was generally very affable, but nobody knew exactly what to expect from her – I mean c’mon…she was foreign. Well, the Shins are exactly like that Swedish girl.

When the Shins broke onto the scene with Oh, Inverted World, they caught a few of the more observant peoples’ attention, just like my foreign exchange student. They were well-liked by pretty much anyone who did happen to hear them, but nobody knew just what they were up to…a decent start for a little-known band.

Junior year, my little foreign exchange girl was rolling along - ‘in the groove’ you might say. She was accepted as just another girl, far from a social pariah, but hardly the prom queen. Nobody really thought bad of her and the most positive thing you ever heard anyone say was, “She’s definitely got something about her.” That was until she went to prom with the jackass captain of the football team. All I’ll say about that night is that my little Swedish girl went into the date innocent and came out a steaming heap of damaged goods.

The Shins popped out Chutes Too Narrow and everyone felt great. The band had followed-up on a solid first album with more of the same. People liked that. They had hardly “hit it big”, but they had their fair share of devoted fans. That is until jackass Zach Braff came along with his wannabe indie flick and ruined it all. All I’ll say about Garden State is that the Shins went into the film a viable under-the-radar band and came out a commercially raped pile of “Hey, you mean the guys from Garden State?” Damn Zach Braff, damn anyone who doesn’t damn Zach Braff, and damn anyone who doesn’t stay up all night damning Zach Braff.

Senior year rolled around and you would think my sweet little damaged Swedish girl would have shrunk into the bowels of high school society. Or maybe even packed up her bags and sailed back to BF, Sweden. Hell no. Girl had gumption. Girl had grit. Girl came back full-blown hottie. A nice big “up yours” to the entire football team.

Enter the Shins’ third album, Wincing the Night Away (dropping january 23, 2007). I consider this to be the full-blown Swedish hottie of Shins albums. I’ve already had people liken songs on this album to both seeing a long-lost friend and falling in love. Funny, because when I talked to Jimmy Mercer he told me the album was all about running over squirrels in his 1988 Mercury Tracer and playing Parcheesi with illegitimate Estonian children. I kid, i kid.

The albums kicks-off with “Sleeping Lessons,” a dreamily bouncing, turned straight-ahead rocking song that’s one of the few in the world that makes me actually want to watch the ridiculous visualizations of Windows Media Player. This makes way for “Australia,” which ironically sounds like it opens with some sort of German jibber-jabber, but is actually just those wacky Shins being zany. I’m still going to pretend it’s Germans mumbling – those damn krauts never enunciate. ANYWAYS, the song’s quite the playful little tune, but that betrays the lyrics calling out an unrequited something or other: “You’d be damned to be one of us, girl/Faced with a dodo’s conundrum/Ah, I felt like I could just fly/But nothing’ll happen every time I try.” Well put, James.

The middle portion of Wincing the Night Away is undeniably solid and up to and beyond your usual Shins sounds, which definitely says something. Whereas the Shins’ first two albums had a slightly cold feel, this album warms up to you like a toilet seat that was in use mere moments before you graced it with your own best side. This is no clearer to me than on the closing track, “A Comet Appears,” a slowed-down acoustic gem. It’s classic Shins in the best kind of way. Again, the lyrics betray that warmth, but who the hell wants to hear people sing about gumdrop dreams anyways.

And there it is, the best album in an already solid Shins discography – the full blown hottie. People tried to stunt their growth; tried to stop their upward climb; tried to pull them down into the infinite abyss, but the Shins were having none of it. Up yours, Zach Braff.

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