The Shins 'Oh, Inverted World' (Sub Pop 2001)

As promised; the following is the review I penned in 2001, for the magazine Looking for a fish-drying plant?, of The Shins' Oh, Inverted World:

Don't be alarmed by the opening track Caring is Creepy, an awkwardly skewed new-wave sort of thing which sounds like a CURE B-side from the late-80's. The rest of this album is a wee gem of oddly-comforting pop, if not comfortingly-odd pop, rather like a very affectionate homage to the 60's psych of TOMORROW or LOVE or THE BEACH BOYS (the vocal dept.) or SYD BARRETT to name a couple, very carefully and cleverly done with quick-fire (mostly) sub-3-minute songs and aptly sparing use of effects. This is extremely tasty stuff which just reminds me track-after-track that I should really get The Great British Psychedelic Trip vol. 1 thru 3 CD's back off whoever it was I lent them to about two years ago. Best line: "You may notice certain things before you die / mail them to me should they cause your algebra to fail".

The review was part of an article in which I reviewed and raved-about my favourite psychedelic-pop albums.