I hope that name’s better than “The Shins”, right?
[Video][Website]
[3.57]
Katherine St Asaph: They’ve also got a name for these guys.
[3]
Katie Gill: In an NPR interview, frontman James Mercer says that he hopes “Name for You” is a hopeful ode of empowerment to his daughters. Truth be told, I’d rather my hopeful odes of empowerment not come from male singers mansplaining (mansinging?) at me to be empowered in the first place.
[4]
Alfred Soto: If the New Pornographers’ Carl Newman excels at stringing hortatory phrases that are on first listen meaningless in toto, The Shins at worst specialize in what James Mercer correctly calls a “bland kind of torture.” I can’t deny his melodic gifts, and the creamer his productions get, the more I like’em. But don’t essay Of Montreal — his voice collapses like a muffler on the turnpike.
[4]
Cédric Le Merrer: Is your mind able to go through the mental gymnastics required to remember the context in which this kind of shit was cool? I can’t.
[1]
Ryo Miyauchi: A middle-age anthem from a middle-age band, “Name for You” has James Mercer admitting the jig is up: their days of saving lives is basically over. Such a mode seems overdue from him, but it turns out The Shins sound better when they refuse to admit their time is done. While it sounds huge, this one gets the job done without much ambition, a thing Port of Morrow had in abundance despite the band nearing their expiration date.
[5]
Thomas Inskeep: I expected generic indie, but what I got wasn’t even that good. This is like, indie for boring people who think that listening to this somehow makes them “edgy.”
[3]
Rachel Bowles: More of an earworm than a heartworm, The Shins deliver pretty much what I would expect from them- lyrics that perhaps cut too deeply juxtaposed by a cheerful presentation, Mercer’s pleasant tones, particularly falsetto, to an upbeat indie disco track. Does that count as irony anymore? Femme listeners know what someone is probably about to call us after observing “they’ve got a name for you girls,” and I’d like to answer that and any hangovers of Natalie Portman in Garden State with this.
[5]