Since a mailout just before Christmas last year from the group’s label Columbia started the ball rolling, The Shins have been offering brief updates and even briefer snippets of tracks being recorded for their new album. Now, we’ve finally got the first full single.
The follow-up to 2012’s Port Of Morrow has Dead Alive as its lead below, priming fans for a record which James Mercer believes they will ‘really love’.
“I’m really excited about this record,” he told the KBOO 90.7 radio station. “I think we’ve got something that Shins fans will really love, and I think there are some other things on there that are different enough. I made a concerted effort on some songs to fit the palette, to use the palette that I’ve historically used for the band.”
“I think it’s really strong. Lyrically, I think I’m better than I ever was, and I think my songwriting is better than it ever was.”
