The Shins are back again after a five-year absence with a second single from Heartworms, “Name For You”. The new album produced by frontman James Mercer, is out March 10th and available for preorder. Some people (your author, for instance) who love vaguely gruesome, trip-inducing tattoo art might spring for the slightly overpriced, but charming lithograph poster.
As exciting as a musical evolution can be, die-hard Shins fans will be pleased to hear the band mostly unchanged. “Name For You” is upbeat and dismissive, crunchy and clean – it offers a candid feminist mantra with its obligatory handful of surrealist metaphors (Given all the drops in the ocean/Better take it one sip at a time). Mercer tells NPR, the track is meant to empower his daughters.
The full track list for Heartworms, including the previously released single “Dead Alive”:
1. Name For You
2. Painting A Hole
3. Cherry Hearts
4. Fantasy Island
5. Mildenhall
6. Rubber Ballz
7. Half A Million
8. Dead Alive
9. Heartworms
10. So Now What
11. The Fear