This is a really good cd. I was a bit nervous as I first came across The Shins in the movie Garden State. I loved the two songs that they had on there and was glad to hear they were both on this cd, though I was a bit nervous that the rest of the cd might not have been as good. However, this cd doesn't fail to disappoint. Among these great songs are; Caring is Creepy, Girl Inform Me, Know your Onion!, New Slang, One By One Day by Day, and Pressed In A Book. The others are good too.

The Shins "Oh, Inverted World" is a whopping debut of great tunes tinged with a subtle ingredient of the south, particularly in "One By One All Day". "Caring is Creepy", "Know Your Onion", "Girl Inform Me", "New Slang", and "The Past and the Pending" are just the highlights of this rollicking-good album. It is simply produced with catchy tunes that will stay with you for a good time.

This album was one of the better albums I've heard in a long time. I think its listenable from beginning to end, and it probably should be a classic to music lovers for years to come.

-JR

I am always in a mood to listen to the Shins. They have digested and combined all the different genres of contemporary music and the product is larger than its parts. I have all their albums and I don't know which one I like best.

Debuting in the summer of 2001, this album propped the bar up higher for craftsmen (and coattail-happy riders) of indie rock everywhere. From their deceptively simple structuralism to their mind-bending, almost mythical lyrics, The Shins gave lovers of the genre everywhere a good reason to let out a sigh of relief.

Like all great artists (The Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Brians Wilson and Eno, to name just a few), there are hints of other influences in this record (in fact, the last two in my parenthetical above are arguably in that list). These influences come in the form of hints and hums, though, and don't overshadow the delicate beauty of the rest of the record. They give it shape and shadow, but the warm, tender heart of the album belongs exclusively to Mr. Mercer, et. al.

Emotional ("Caring is Creepy"), skippingly-playful ("Know Your Onion!"), tender and evocative ("The Past and Pending"), and unabashedly poppy ("Girl Inform Me"), this album spans the spectrum of creativity, and does it with a talent and panache that seems rarer and rarer these days. The Shins mix simple (but gorgeous) chord progressions with airy brass, unobtrusive tambourine and harmonica, and well-blended electronica into something that is almost achingly fun to experience. It would be wrong to say they've turned the world of indie rock upside down, but it's true they've shone light on a new and darker part of it, a part that's worth visiting for a long, long time.

Heard this first during a family vacation in Hilton Head, loved it even more after "Garden State," adored it after seeing them for the first time this past summer, when they opened at the Hollywood Bowl for Belle & Sebastian. So beautiful and painfully aware...

This was the first cd that my baby niece ever listened to in the womb, this is the first cd that I listened to in my car on the way to one of the first weddings I ever went to, this is the cd that I would play to calm my nerves after a rough day at work, this is the first cd that I bought multiple copies of the very first time I heard it to give out to friends. This is the first cd that my mom actually thought "was pretty good music." This is a cd that you remember, not just some "band that will go away after time" The Shins are a band to remember. Not just some band passing through town on a long tour. The shins are almost rustic in a way that your heart kind of smiles after listening.

During finals in college this was about the only cd I could listen to, to help me concentrate on studying. With all of the distractions of roomates and college dorm life in general this cd in some magical way calmed me and helped me focus on studying for week long finals.

I guess I could say, I owe a lot to the shins. I've never met them, but thier music has touched me in a way that I will never forget. This is one of thoose bands that I will tell my kids that I used to love.

My Favorite is The Past And Pending... check out the words... after 100 or so listens, you'll know... you're hooked!!

This album is great - if you're already a fan, you can't go wrong with "Oh, Inverted World." As Natalie Portman so accurately put it, "The Shins will totally change your life."

I've never been one to jump all over "Indie Rock". In fact, until a couple years ago I had never really paid attention to that genre, I figured it was probably underground alternative rock (it is) that I probably would not enjoy or find sounding to much like a lot of the new crap that plugs up my FM dial (I was wrong, so wrong). After opening my mind and checking out some Indie Rock albums, I settled on purchasing this album by "The Shins". I couldn't believe the strength they had with their light approach to guitars and yet still belt out some fun, sometimes enlightening, and sometimes haunting music. The first description I found of this band was that they did their music in the "tradition of the beach boys". I figured that can't be all bad, and it's not. Some 60's sounds do emit from this eleven-track debut, but coupled with the other fresh and often eclipsing sounds from this band (I'm also hearing some folk presence if ever so lightly) I don't think we are dealing with any rehash here. It's genuine. For some reason this band that came out of New Mexico as a sort of revamped project from some of the members previous band, isn't coming up on the radar much. Just as well, sometimes the best-kept secrets are worth keeping.

This music is great to listen to on any number of occasions, but I almost think its best when your just kicking it in your crib, or house, or flat, shack, shanty, apartment, suburban sprawl or cave. Regardless of the setting, its the soothing vibes and tranquil melodies that have just enough of a twinge of pop, punk, and beach boys snare that seem to take any bad mood you had at the start of the day and throw it out the window.

I won't review every track on the album, but give an overview of several of the tracks, which I am currently listening to in, my...den.

Track one is one of the most captivating, more serious tracks on the album that is really one of the only "sad" sounding tracks on the album. I'm not talking sad as in bawling Axl Rose on a ballad, or Eddie Vedder mumbling about a homeless man he fed bread but who still starved to death. No, it's got more of a feel of "we're in trouble, heres the message" as opposed to "we're mired in quicksand and we're on fire...oh please feel sad now". The track is called "Caring is Creepy". The song has some very uplifting vibes despite the overall shadowed message, it's really a lot of small crescendo's that climb and drop. The structures of the sounds that come at us during the chorus are probably the most captivating.

The other thing I have to say is that this singer (James Mercer) is extremely convincing. To sing with conviction without coming off as either overbearing or a complete fake is important...to me as a listener anyways. A perfect example is a band that had some similar indie/pop fame called Oasis. The singers in that instance put to much emotion into their vocals and by the time we had seen their mugs on TV 400 times we were sick of the video AND the audio. In "The Shins" case, they simply PLAY. They SING. And it's recorded beautifully. Sometimes with music like this you can spend to little time in the production and mixing phase. In these guys' case you can tell that with every instrument and vocal part, it's laid out well. The beats echo when they should, the voices fade off when they must, and in the end we're left with what I think is a very tight album.

Track 2 is called "One by one all day" and by the time I was halfway through this song, I was seeing Hueys flying over the Jungles of Vietnam. Why you ask? It's that 60's sound, from the beach boys chords to even a little eccentric organ sound that reminds me of the "Doors". At this point I'm thinking "okay, be careful, don't do this to much or we'll be seeing Charlie Sheen jumping through the bushes running from Sgt. Barnes next". Fortunately for my vivid imagination, the end of this song actually had some really cool psychedelic sounds that came in before some more of that "Beach Sound" so I'll have to watch the rest of "Platoon" in order to get back to that 60's feeling.

Track 6 is a fun little folk sounding tune that starts out with some jingles that set the beat for a Beatles sounding "ooh ooh ooooh" before jumping into the heart of the tune. At first sound I'm thinking I hear those Huey's again. with "New Slang" has a beautiful acoustic guitar strum-along that the vocals carry along well with. Okay I have to say it; it reminds me of a cross between say, Bob Dylan and John Denver. Is there anything wrong with that? Of course not. Fact is this style of music hasn't been done WELL by many bands for some time, so it's nice to hear. This is what "Alternative Rock" or "Indie Rock" is supposed to be! Again, some great background vocals on here, just an overall simple, sweet tune.

Track 8 speeds things up a bit with an adrenaline pumping, choppy resonation of a tune called "Girl on the wing". The drums are hit heavier but still stay way back to let the little guitar we get set the tone with some cool riffs.

Track 9? Weird. That's not a bad thing of course, the song "Your Algebra" just shows that these guys are diverse, and this thing for me really brought to mind (no not NAM helicopters sorry) some of the EARLY Pink Floyd stuff, you know, with Syd Barret. Stuff that is so magical, strange, and gray that it stands the test of time, and surely can't be dated as much as say, the Beach Boys.

Track 11 is "The Past and pending" and is a very tight, slow tune where the main focus is on the vocals. Again, not really uplifting, but not a downer either. I mentioned the color "Gray" earlier, and if there could be such a color attributed to this band, that would probably suffice. Don't worry, I'll throw some tie die in around the edges, because in the end of this album, I've realized that its got just a little drop of everything in it, and even better, its something I'm going to listen to again and again.

That in itself is surprising coming from me, the guy who used to avoid "Indie Rock" like the plague. Indie rock didn't kill rock and roll, if anything; it may be bands in the near future that are like "The Shins" that keep it alive. Atmospheric, folk like Dylan, Psychedelic like Floyd, and some guitars right off the beach. Don't mind the copters, or the people who are harshly critical of this album. Give it a chance like I did, and hopefully, like me, you won't be disappointed.

Two full-length CDs (and just over an hour) into their recording career, The Shins have proven themselves to be the best new band of the 2000s. Not the coolest, not the best-dressed, not the sexiest, not the most trendy, not the most well-groomed, just the best. With a sound that is both fresh and retro, James Mercer and company have brought heartstring-tugging tunes in pop, folk, and psychedelic flavors to hundreds of thousands of twenty-somethings. With 11 songs and a running time of 33:11, their debut Oh Inverted World is the perfect length, even though each song isn't exactly 3:01 long: two songs are just under 2 minutes, and another is over 5. While the latter song may be a bit long, the shorter ones sound as complete as an equally short William Carlos Williams poem does.

Lyrically, I do believe that it is apt to compare James Mercer to Morrissey and Stuart Murdoch, even if he isn't as strong of a vocalist as either of them. Alas, this can result in some pretty obscure lines, "New Slang when you notice the stripes/The dirt in your fries" just to mention one of the more obvious ones. (And I hope that the irony of the fact that this song was used in a McDonald's commercial isn't lost on too many people.) The sublime "The Celibate Life" seems to be about a guy who catches his girlfriend cheating, but what the lyric "No skirt while chemicals danced on you head" means is anyone's guess. Meanwhile, lyrics like "I never got cold wearing nothing in the snow" reveal a guy who has tried to immunize himself from from feeling anything at all, though "my head's to the wall and I'm lonely" reveals the futility of his effort to do so. Mercer's adolescent-sounding voice lends itself perfectly to such cries for help.

Anyone who has the Garden State soundtrack and therefore thinks that they don't need this CD is sorely mistaken. Granted, "Caring Is Creepy" and "New Slang" are brilliant and deserve to be classics, but the same can be said of "One By One All Day", "Know Your Opinion!", "The Celibate Life", and "Girl On the Wing". Smaller gems include the disembodied "Your Algebra", which adds a haunted house-like quality to the latter half of the disc, and Beach Boys lilt of "The Weird Divide", which seems to be the only sign of a happy sentiment on the whole record ("shut out, pimpled and angry" is more representative of how Mercer recalls his life thus far).

2003's Chutes Too Narrow is a very different animal than Oh Inverted World. While the former is sparse, the latter abounds with the sort of decorative production that is so absent from its follow-up. Oh Inverted World is not overwhelmed by the echoey, atmospheric production, though, and the songs have plenty of room to fully form. The tracks themselves are very much individual entities, but they combine to form a brilliant organic whole, even if the record loses bit of steam with "The Past and the Pending". Moreover, the songs are punchier and more meaty than the ones on Chutes Too Narrow, but the fact that there are differences in the production and songwriting style is a moot point. Just as Chutes Too Narrow was the best CD of 2003, Oh Inverted World is -at the very least - a candidate for the best CD of 2001.

This is one of those records I love absolutely EVERYTHING about. The singing, the songwriting, even the way it was recorded. It's all fantastic. (I even love how the CD liner looks like it was printed on an ink-jet printer in the band's basement and all they had left was cyan...)

The Shins' sound on this album has a '60s folk/rock influence. You also hear quite a bit of The Kinks in The Shins' sound. There is nothing gimmicky-retro about the record, though.

Every track is excellent, and they all work together to form a very complete album.

"Oh, Inverted World" is rapidly moving up to become one of my favorite records.

After I'd listened to Chutes Too Narrow I went and bought this one. Absolutely outrageous! Dare I say "white music is still alive?" :) This is clearly a combo of punk, folk and bliss -- call it NeoFolk. These guys will forever be heroes in the annals of music history. A hundred years from now these guys will still be listened to and emulated.
PS: It's music for everyone...not just white guys :)

I first heard of this group through Garden State, which I thought was a pretty awesome movie. New Slang is obviously a great song, and definitely the best on the album, but at first the other songs just didn't do anything for me. However, when their newest album Chutes Too Narrow came out I discovered how good both ablums were in actuality. It just takes several listens for the true excellence of the melodies and short to the point song structures to reveal their intricacies. At first the singer's voice is kinda annoying but it grows on you. Overall excellent album, just needs to be longer. They should have released this album and their new one on one CD.

This is a classic/great album; very 60's-ish vibe. Mercer is capable of writing brilliant melodies that stick in your head for weeks.

HERE'S A TIP: Take this album and the follow-up "Chutes Too Narrow", rip them onto your harddrive and then you can fit BOTH albums onto one CDR; much convenience for travelers!

There is a line in the movie Garden State something to the effect of listening to the Shins will change your life. I don't know about changing your life but listening to the Shins will change the way you listen to music. The depth of this album is on a level that few have ever acheieved. From begining to the end there is not a bad song on it. After listening to this album a hundred times over, I still find myself driving down the road with a smile on my face. The Shins might not change your life but they can change your outlook on an otherwise ordinary day.

Im extremly partial towards this band for a few reasons:
Their use of innovation vocally and instrumentaly
The fact that they are so darn catchy

One amazing part of this album is the order. Its a small factor that plays a huge part in the album itself and how it affects people.
The songwriting is phenominal. New Slang is an amazing slow tune while the upbeat aspects of Girl on the Wing balances it out. The diffinite highlight tracks are those two and Caring is Creepy, Know Yr Onion! and Girl inform me, although each song is unique and captivating in its own way. Amazing turnout thanks to the Shins. A life changing cd.

I simply can't stand these reviewers who give awesome CDs such as this one 1 star just because they are stuck in the past and can't accept the fact that you don't need to totally reinvent a genre to produce a wonderful piece of art. If you can't listen to new music with an open mind then you will never be satisfied. The Shins have amazing talent, every song is worth an entire play through, it's upbeat music, reminds me somewhat of the early CDs by They Might Be Giants, some of the lyrics are pretty abstract but they flow so well that you go along with it and attach whatever meaning you want, that's the beauty of this kind of music. A true 5 star rating.

worth a listen every once in awhile... but all the songs start sounding the same after a bit.

My family and i cant get enough of the shins

"The Past and Pending" sounds like a Neil Young song sang by Stephen Stills.

Every song on this album is important, every song is beautifully written and sung. Every song just seems relaxing, and great. There are wonderful harmonies in each song.

My Personal Favorites - New Slang, Weird Divide, The Past And Pending, Caring is Creepy, and Girl Inform Me. But all the songs are great too.
I recommend this album to anyone.

I love this album. It's not as good as chutes too narrow. I still love it. It has a beachboys, simon & Garfunkel vibe. Stand out songs for me new slang, girl inform me. What a melodic sing along album.

I love this album down to every last quavering note. I think it has something to do with the happy go lucky nature, yet minor key of most of their songs. I'm never not in this mood for this band. They employ a vast array of different musical sounds - very much outside of the general mold you can tell they put a lot of imagination into everything. If you buy this album, you're in for a great trip.

I bought this album and Chutes Too Narrow a couple months ago.
Chutes Too Narrow is just as good, I've now found, though in a different style. Give it a few tries and you'll learn to love it. I also highly recommend downloading "New Slang" recorded on Jimmy Kimmel Live (which is even more beautiful than the album version), "Baby Boomerang" and also the one from the Spongebob Squarepants move, I forgot the name of it. They also have a fun Web site. :)

UPDATE - Their latest album, Wincing the night away, released Jan '07, has now become one of my all time favorites. If you like the Shins, you must buy it.

I stumbled on The Shins a week ago. It's the best band I've never heard of. This CD is just really good. It's got a terrific rock and roll feel to it-- a mixture of innocent goodness and psychedelia that feels like the Moody Blues and Cowsills conceived a new band while listening to Jefferson Airplane. I can't wait to hear the other albums.

The CD is great all the way through. The feeling is nice and fresh, kind of like a beachboyish feelgood music, but more eclectic. Very unique, like no other band I've heard. Maybe the vocals could have been pushed up in the mix a little to be better understood. Their next album I actually liked even better, probably because the singer was more upfront and more clear.

This album flows so incredibly well, it's curious why The Shins are not the most popular band in the world. An album that combines meaning with catchiness this well has not come along since Nirvana's 1991 masterpiece "Nevermind". Best songs on this album: "Caring Is Creepy", "Girl Inform Me", "New Slang", "Girl On the Wing" and "Pressed In A Book"

From the opening strains of 'Caring Is Creeping' you know you're into something special on the Shins' debut album. 'Oh, Inverted World' is gorgeous indie pop album, full of catchy hooks and clever witty lyrics. In fact the biggest surprise here is that it this album didn't break them big like their follow (and decidedly lesser) album 'Chutes Too Narrow' did.

While on the surface this would appear to be a delicate set of songs, a close listen will reveal that everything here is driven by wiry and tough rhythms. Its this toughness that sets the Shins apart from their more fey indie pop bretheren. Of course what really elevates 'Oh, Inverted World' to a level of greatness is the fantastic song writing abilities of the band. So many bands since the Beatles and Beach Boys have populate that land of left field pop rock/indie that you would think that nothing could now sound unique while not giving up those catchy pop tendencies. And thats the miracle of the Shins, they match bouncy hooks and charming melodies with just enough alien wierdness to make this a refreshing experience.

James Mercer's vocals have a distinct sound, floating somewhere between boy next door and an unearthly ghost, soft yet always demanding your attention, they're a perfect match for the music. And the music hear is perfectly in balance. While the traditional guitar/bass/drums is of course the foundation of theire sound, keyboards and sound effects twinkle all around complimenting the proceedings. While there is not one band song here, 'Caring is Creepy', the folkish 'New Slang' and 'Girl On The Wing' are surely among the best songs written is this decade, if not the past twenty years. Anyone who likes good music should check out 'Oh, Ineverted World' because it could well be a long long time before anything half as good will come out from this band, let alone another.

... a truly fine CD.

I am, for the most part, into largely mainstream music and have never really delved into the Indie scene-before I heard the Shins that is. The songs on this cd are so excellent that it's hard for me to imagine why the Shins haven't already become the most popular band in the world. Each song builds upon the work of the songs before it to create a musical effect that is singularly stunning. I do have favorites on the cd (New Slang, Pressed in a Book, Celibate life), but they're only mildy better then my least favorite songs on the album (Weird Divide, Your Algebra). The only flaw this album conceivably has is its length...31 minutes is just not enough when the songs are so consistently excellent. Everyone buy it, and it's follow-up Chutes Too Narrow!

Reading these reviews has told me that 90% of the shins fans writing reviews here came to know who they are from the movie garden State. I am also in this group of people. Garden state which is and incredible movie also had an incredible soundtrack and after hearing the two shins songs I Just had to look them up and they by far one of my favorite bands. Defiently something you dont hear everyday. Im thankfull to Zach Braff for being a fan of the Shins otherwise i would Have never heard there music in Garden State and my life would Still be without the shins. The Shins rock and this album is off the Hook. Favorite songs are "Carry is Creapy" and "Girl on the Wing"

most of the relevant things to say about this album have already been said, but one issue is yet to have been touched upon. one of the more stunning tracks on this album is the second, "One by One All Day". to a first time listener, the song may not sound like much (as was the case with me). the first verse tends to drone on and be a bit boring, with not much spacing between the notes. it could come off initially as something james mercer composed while trying to meet a deadline of some sort, with no immediately discernable catchy melody or hook. the rest of the song will strike the first timer as nothing special, however much passes over his head.
after listening to the song again and again over many months, i finally noticed one of the most devilish tricks i have ever heard a group play on its listeners. from the sputtering moped-like drone at the very beginning to the dying reverberative bass and snare drum beat at the end, the shins play on the theme of a flickering rhythm that is manifest on numerous occasions throughout the song. the rapidly strumming guitar matches the drums' repetitive rhythm beat for beat the whole way through, with the exception of a portion of the interlude about two thirds through the track.
in addition to these acoustic effects, the shins plant some electronic sounds into the interlude that flicker and skip (with, of course, the same rhythm as the drums and the guitar) into the distance until they are no more.
what the listener is left with is a totally intoxicating sensation of rapidly blinking sounds and lights and emotions unlike that left by any other song. deviously, in a final act of trickery, the shins hurl upon the listener a sound something like the strumming of a palatte of metal rods and needles, which, personally, makes my head go into a terminal spin.
oh shins, you devilish things.

I first heard The Shins when I watched Garden State a while back (Great movie). "Caring is Creepy" and especially "New Slang" are such catchy (not in the annoying radio pop way) songs, and they were stuck in my head for days. I picked up the album and was pleased by the album's atmosphere which projected a mellow mood, yet far from boring. The melodies are soft, sliding, and stimulating. The Shins are essentially indie popish rock that touches a little on folk and exerts the basic majesty of 60's psychedelia. The lyrics are unique, being poetic in their own right, and as the songs grow on you, so does the band overall. Outstanding tracks are "Caring is Creepy" "New Slang" "One by One All Day" and "Girl Inform Me."

You won't be disappointed.

The Shins are a great band and this album proves it. The most important thing in the music is melody. This album has some of the best melodies I have ever heard. They're not obtrusive or in-your-face, they just exist and you're allowed to enjoy them. They crop up in my head at any point in the day. I'll just start humming the intro to one of the songs. And they are always welcome. The lyrics on this album are also very good, with long sentences punctuating from line to line and hook to hook. Really an amazing album.

This CD was a pleasant surprise for me. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much about this CD, I just bought it because I listened the Garden State Soundtrack, and I liked one of the songs a lot. However, after listening to it, I must say I was surprised with the musical quality of this band. A very well mixed album with relaxing music to seat and enjoy listening. If you are not sure about this band, give it a try, I think you won't regret it...