I could name at least a dozen bands/artists or albums that turn out not to be as great as it first seemed. You know what I’m talking about - you get an album and think it’s great, but then the excitement kind of fizzles out and you notice a month later that you’d forgotten you even had it. The Shins, so far, have followed the exact opposite pattern, as you can see in the graph below.

The Shins, graphed

If the orange line represents Chutes Too Narrow and the blue line is Wincing The Night Away, you can see an estimate of the frequency with which I’ve listened to these two albums since their releases. (A few notes about the graph: 1. I’ve not included Oh, Inverted World because I didn’t buy that until well after I’d already fallen in love with Chutes Too Narrow, which therefore excludes it from this study. 2. Time Passing data for Chutes Too Narrow is not proportionally correct on this graph, as including the appropriate space between the release of the two albums would have made it far wider than your browser window and totally messed up our column layout.)

Let’s have a look at the data, shall we?

Like every album ever listened to by man, The Shins do take dips in my listening habits. This usually starts with new releases that dominate my stereo for a while, which lead to other albums being played, etc. The interesting thing to notice is that, once The Shins get into my stereo, the Listening Frequency always climbs steadily. They don’t get played once here and there and then get put away again. I attribute this phenomenon to those things that make The Shins unique. Their lyrics are one of the few current bands (that I know of) that could just as well be read on paper as poetry - there’s no rhyming love and dove, they write about the world as they know it with a mastery of the English language that most bands could only dream of. James Mercer’s phrasing inspires compulsive listening - his voice never quite does what you expect it to, which you only really notice the more you hear him sing and makes him fascinating to listen to. Their combination of country, pop, and indie sounds make them suitable for any listening occasion - while working or reading, traveling, dancing, singing out loud and proud, nursing heartbreak, or quiet contemplation.

Although it’s not clear (see note 2 above) from the graph, Chutes Too Narrow’s Frequency climb was relatively gradual. But by the time Wincing The Night Away was released, I knew to expect greatness and, as a result, its rise to the top was much more rapid. In addition, the release of the newer album caused a bump in the Listening Frequency of the older one.

So what have we learned? Listening to The Shins just makes me want to listen to them more. Which makes them a very special (and rarely found) band indeed.

   The Shins - Turn On Me