Photo: Press
The Shins' James Mercer has unveiled a beautiful indie pop song that pulls the heartstrings to the extent Richard Ashcroft does on an acoustic. Check out the live acoustic version of 'The Fear' taken from forthcoming album, Heartworms, below.
Of the song, Mercer told an industry-heavy crowd during a similar performance of it at The Lock Tavern in Camden that it was his favourite on the album. The tune, recorded especially for BBC 6 Music, is performed on a vintage Gibson J45 on this recording is slightly different from the studio version as its taken right back to its bare bones.
To be fair, the album version relatively more spacious compared with other songs on the album, which as a whole, is closer to Phoenix and Ariel Pink than The Verve. The adventurous complexity of the bands sound was heavily influenced by Mercer's recent discover of an appregiator which plays a chord as a rapid succession of notes, rather than simultaneously.
Mercer, certainly an interesting purveyor of new sonics that can prove the next Shins album to be an exciting album that stands out from the rest of his oeuvre. But what this recording proves, is that Mercer would be great company in a power cut around a campfire as the classic combination of vox and acoustic never fails him and this is one of the finest songs he's ever written.
