2. The Shins – Wincing the Night Away
December 21, 2007
This is probably the least surprising placement on the list for anyone that has talked to me about music in the last year. I love this album through and through. If you have listened to the Shins in the past, this album continues progressing their music into wonderful areas. Much of the album is what you would expect from the Shins, quirky tunes that mesh together to make a great album. That alone would have been enough to get the album into the top 5, but the band had a trick up their sleeve as well, a little song called Phantom Limb.
Phantom Limb is my song of the year and makes a really good Shins album great. If you have not heard it, you owe it to yourself to listen simply for the working of the different music styles into the same song. It works perfectly. This is not to say that song is the only one worth checking out, Australia and Sea Legs are also top notch works. All of this adds up to a great album, but not quite #1.