Chutes Too Narrow: the Shins: Amazon.ca: Music

Frequently Bought Together

1. Kissing the Lipless

2. Mine's Not A High Horse

3. So Says I

4. Young Pilgrims

5. Saint Simon

6. Fighting In a Sack

7. Pink Bullets

8. Turn a Square

9. Gone For Good

10. Those to Come

Product Description

From Amazon.com

The Shins' sophomore album is a joy from start to finish, though it's rather different from their 2001 leftfield pop genius stunner Oh, Inverted World. That album was like a warm embrace from a long-lost pal. True to its title, all of the songs were of a piece, seeming to inhabit one landscape, with an invitingly similar sound throughout. Chutes is more far-reaching and decidedly eclectic. Each song is essentially its own genre exercise. There's singer-songwriter James Mercer's surprisingly Perry Farrell-ish wail on the almost indie-metal opener, "Kissing the Lipless"; the lovely pedal steel lilt to "Gone for Good"; the moody folktronica of "Those to Come"; and the Cars-gone-rockabilly riffing on "Turn a Square." The strongest song, the acoustic "Young Pilgrims," is stripped-down and brilliant. On every tune, Mercer packs more hooks and melodic invention than most bands do on one album. As a whole, it's an even better record than Inverted World. --Mike McGonigal

Album Description

Japanese version featuring a bonus track

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Customer Reviews

199 Reviews

5 star:		(117)
4 star:		(43)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(13)

Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (199 customer reviews)

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Most helpful customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars How Can You Doubt Padme?, Oct 30 2005

By

Alan Ranta (Tiny Mix Tapes) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chutes Too Narrow (Audio CD)

An acoustic driven album from the New Mexico quartet, Chutes Too Narrow sees The Shins maturing to a full on experience. As opposed to the sociopathic delivery and ultimate misrepresentation of false emotions and hypothetical situations by groups like The Darkness, Jet, and The Kings Of Leon, James Mercer has more invested in his lyrics. Just as catchy and easy to listen to, it sounds like more work went into this production specifically the careful studio touches and craftsmanship in each track. No doubt they're stuck in the post-Beatles sixties, but they manage to create a sound that's their own, even more so than the like minds of Apples In Stereo, while others seem content in merely changing a few chords of selected rock classics and calling them influences instead of the inspiration, creative force, and original sources they really are. Ah, the slowly dissolving difference between influence and plagiarism ... welcome to the Xerox Generation, ladies and gentleman. Sure, their lyrics may never have been put together in that particular order before but, as any true music aficionado will tell you, it wasn't just the lyrics Robert Plant sang that made him great but how he sang them and The Shins have that, lets call it, soul. They're no fly-by-night fad but a band invested in themselves regardless of us throwing joints and knickers at them, although I'm sure they appreciate it. They'll be here long after Jet and Justin Hawkins have been Posh-ed into retirement to live out their days swimming in their piles of ill-got cash and appearing on "Thought They Were Dead" television specials. Even if you don't like The Shins' psychedelic revival, happy, floaty with a touch of melancholy music, you have to respect the effort.

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5.0 out of 5 stars This is really, really good, July 19 2004

By

James P. Maguire (Newark, DE United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Chutes Too Narrow (Audio CD)

Ok, when I picked this cd up, I knew absolutely nothing about it. It's possible that I'd read a review for it in Rolling Stone, but the point is that I bought this cd on vague curiosity alone. If vague curiosity has ever been rewarded, it was that day.
If I had to choose a genre in which to place this album, I'd have to think about it for a long time and then throw up my hands and say "the really good music genre." Each song seems to have some kind of formula -- there's always an acoustic guitar, and almost always some drums, and every once in a while a new instrument will make a cameo. Other than that, every song is easily discernable from the others on the album, somewhat of a rarity in my experience.
The real treat here is James Mercer's lyricism, which does a brilliant job of not only providing each song with its own mood and story, but also serving the song as an instrument in itself -- the sounds of the words he sings are just important to the song as the pitch of Mercer's voice.
All in all, Chutes Too Narrow is an excellent cd that exceeds all expectations -- it did for me, anyway.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Best album i've bought since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, July 18 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Chutes Too Narrow (Audio CD)

I can't even describe how great this album is. You just have to buy it, put it in your CD player, and be blown away - just like I was.

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