The Shins ‘ 2004 microhit “New Slang” established one of the more pliant templates in 2000s pop – Feist , Bon Iver and Mumford & Sons all owe something to its frumpy intimacy and strummy, mumbled moodiness. But James Mercer has been stretching for something grander ever since; 2007’s Wincing the Night Away was almost prog-rock in its micromanaged ambition. On the first Shins record in five years, he nails a balance of economy and sweep, matching the studio lushness he craves with the secondhand melodicism that made “New Slang” resonate beyond the vegan cookouts of his base in Portlandia. Port of Morrow has more of a studio-sculpture auteurist vibe than ever. Mercer and producer Greg Kurstin send filaments of Sixties and Seventies radio gold and Nineties indie pop through a picturesque psychedelia – from the “Be My Baby” cathedral boom of “Simple Song” (with Janet Weiss mutilating the drums) to “For a Fool,” soul-pop balladry as a mossy Upper Northwest guitar nod. … [Read more...] about Port of Morrow