A bit of music from the aughts tonight… I must say that my discovery of newer music (particularly pop and rock) in the decade took a pretty big hit. I wasn’t working at a record store anymore, I WAS buried neck deep constantly in graduate school, and though the first half of the decade was bad, as CDs disappeared and Celia and Mira showed up, my music shopping became more and more restricted to iTunes and eMusic. Plus – I just wasn’t hearing too much that I found interesting (getting older and set in my ways??? Hell no! But… yeah). There are exceptions of course, and two of those groups were ‘The Decemberists’ (from just south of us) and ‘The Shins’.

‘The Crane Wife’ is a pretty great album. And while I generally stay away from 70s prog-rock, the best parts of that genre found their way into ‘The Crane Wife’. The 12 minute second track (‘The Island’) has moments of ELP keyboard rockin’ that sound simply amazing. And the first three tracks are perfection. And though she doesn’t understand the words, I get a kick that it is one of Celia’s favorite songs (though she will take Kylie over the Decemberists any day). Though I do really like this album (and their first few as well), I was surprised that I didn’t jump and buy their latest once it came out. I actually was turned off a little bit by the uber-NPR promotion of ‘the next great’ concept album by the baroque rockers. It’s over-seriousness was a little too much for me. At some point though I really should pick it up. I imagine I’ll love it if it does pick up where ‘The Crane Wife’ leaves off.

The Shins on the other hand have really held my interest, and when ‘Wincing The Night Away’ came out, I DID get it the same day. And though there was a wave of fan disappointment over ‘the new sound’, it caught my ear right away. And part of what I really like about The Shins is that there is progression among all three of their albums. The mostly acoustic sound on the first one was a winning formula, but by the second one things have changed a bit. Still quite melodic, but also more electric and pop-y on one hand (‘Girl Inform Me’ is one of the best songs of the aughts in my opinion) and even more acoustic songwriter on the other (‘New Slang’ which, in spite of its cheesy usage in ‘Garden State’ really IS a great song). Then ‘Wincing The Night Away’ starts with synthesizers and vocals with effects… quite the surprise, but a wonderful one. I was sold on it about halfway through the first song, and thought the album was definitely a great step forward. It’s been about 3 years since its release, and I can’t wait for the next one.