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Jack Robinson reviews
Chutes Too Narrow
Sub Pop
- Year: 2004
- Rating: 9/10
- Cat. No: I394363
Track listing:
- 1. Kissing The Lipless
2. Mine’s Not A High Horse
3. So Says I
4. Young Pilgrims
5. Saint Simon
6. Fighting In A Sack
7. Pink Bullets
8. Turn A Square
9. Gone For Good
10. Those To Come
The follow-up to The Shins‘ debut, Oh, Inverted World, was never going to be an easy task. However, the New Mexico quartet have made it look so. Worth the £10.99 from HMV alone is the cartoony, South-Park-esque cover which depicts farming countryside. But it is the songs that comprise the 33:50 of this album that make it really worth its money.
Kissing The Lipless is one of those quiet-bit/loud-bit openers, which, on 3 seconds, features a communal whoop from the group. It sets the stall out perfectly. Second is the confusingly-titled Mine’s Not A High Horse, but a beautiful song, reminiscing of “the day your high horse died”. Third is a song that can only be a tip of the hat in the direction of The Beatles. So Says I, the album’s first single, contains the brilliant line We Are A Brutal Kind. It’s this realisation that makes the album what it is – a movement towards brilliant indie, away from naivety.
Fourth comes Young Pilgrims, which starts off with a lush melody, and once again features brilliant lyrics, as does track five, Saint Simon. A sound reflective (if unwittingly) of The Coral’s last album works well after the opening songs have been (whisper it) a little bland in terms of instrumentation. It sinks into a la-di-da-di-da section with violin at the 1:40 mark – a welcome interlude.
Next is Fighting In A Sack – a song which discusses “coming off the track”. An inevitability for a US indie album, but nevertheless a tuneful one. Best of all comes next – Pink Bullets – one of those brilliant alt-country moments where the guitars just follow a pattern, whilst singer James Mercer provides meaningful and well-enunciated lyrics on top. The best line is at 0:58 – “Over the ramparts you tossed the scent of your skin”. It’s heaven in todays world of spelling-it-out popstars. And when you think it’s got into full flow, it stops and almost whispers some beautiful lines that bring a tear to the eye.
After that is the deceptively upbeat Turn A Square, the country-esque Gone For Good and beautiful closer Those To Come, which repeats one of the best recent guitar riffs relentlessly, fading to close. It’s remeniscent of a beautiful dream.
The overall impression I got from this album is one of awe, contemplation and surreal beauty. It may not be long at just over half an hour, but it’s well worth its money. If you only buy one obscure record this year, make it this.
Review copyright © Jack Robinson, 2004. E-mail Jack Robinson
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.