The Shins: Chutes Too Narrow (20th anniversary edition) [SUB POP]

Why you'll love it

This 20th anniversary edition gives Chutes Too Narrow a fresh remaster from Sub Pop. Pitchfork named it Best New Music, it scored 88 on Metacritic, and it sold more than 393,000 copies in its first five years.

This edition

• 20th anniversary edition
• Remastered
• Stereo mix

About the album

Most bands upgrade to a proper studio for album two. The Shins went downstairs instead, cutting Chutes Too Narrow in the basement of James Mercer's house in Portland, Oregon, because it was cheaper than a real studio. The result sounds anything but cheap: producer Phil Ek mixed it in Seattle, swapped the hazy keyboards of Oh, Inverted World for bright, ringing guitars and gave Mercer's high, wiry voice room to breathe.

"Kissing the Lipless" opens the record at full gallop, "So Says I" is a two-minute sugar rush of a single, and "Saint Simon" adds Annemarie Ruljancich's violin to one of Mercer's loveliest melodies. "Fighting in a Sack" bounces, "Young Pilgrims" (where the album title comes from) strums along wistfully, and "Gone for Good" tries on a pedal steel twang. Rolling Stone heard sixties folk rock, abundant hooks and that inimitable croon, which covers it nicely.

Jesse LeDoux's cover art picked up a Grammy nomination for Best Recording Package, and the closing pair of songs ended up in the 2004 film In Good Company. Mid-recording, keyboardist Marty Crandall's girlfriend went on America's Next Top Model and finished third wearing three different Shins T-shirts, which is still the most effective marketing campaign we've ever heard of.

Also at Kops: more The Shins on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Sub Pop (cat# SP 1570), a reissue of the 2003 album.