The Shins "Oh! Inverted World" [2001]

Back before non-rocking songwriters smoked too much pot and grew their beards too long, they tended to sit around wallowing in their own insecurity. I'm not sure which is more pathetic, especially after revisiting The Shins' debut, "Oh! Inverted World." This is music by and for young people who want desperately to get laid but overthink everything until they've gone completely soft; clearly it's natural selection getting in the way of neurotic eggheads being allowed to procreate. This explains the restless refrains, climbing vocal lines and modulations in these tunes, designed to distract from the abject failure of the band members' ability to function as well-adjusted human beings. Certainly this must have given somebody comfort, but probably only in that their own lives looked less miserable by comparison. Basically these are grad-school folksters who somehow lucked into a record deal; why they should be so down-in-the-mouth about it I can only guess, but perhaps this is where not being able to get laid comes into play. Which would naturally give way to smoking too much pot and growing your beard too long, and this brings us right to the present day. Thanks, Shins, for getting this musical train of Cream of Wheat going in the first place -- now go ruin some other line of work, like accounting or something.