Revered in diehard indie circles, The Shins might have buckled under expectations for their third album. Frontman James Mercer took time following 2003’s Chutes Too Narrow, noting his band were “stretching out”: he meant in both length and depth (hip hop and folk influences sat alongside their one-part Pavement, one-part Beach Boys pop). Yet heartbroken and down-at-heel at the human condition is where these Albuquerque boys remained, nowhere more so than on exquisite ode-to-insomnia Sleeping Lessons. Thousands clearly empathised: Wincing… entered the US charts at Number 2.
