New Shins Album Coming in 2011?

[Photo by Stephen Lindley]

Much has been made of Shins frontman James Mercer’s forthcoming collaboration with Danger Mouse, but could Broken Bells signal the end for the band that Natalie Portman once infamously claimed will “change your life?”

Mercer put those concerns to rest in a recent interview with MTV (via Spin), stating that he has no intention of dismantling The Shins. In fact, he told the music network that the band’s new album may be released as early as next year.

Regardless of release date, The Shins have undergone a label change and lineup shuffling, with bassist/keyboardist Marty Crandall and drummer Jesse Sandoval being replaced by the Fruit Bats’ Ron Lewis and Modest Mouse’s Joe Plummer, respectively. In August, Sandoval said that Mercer wanted to use more complex drum patterns on the new record, and the frontman has expressed an interest in moving toward more lighthearted musical fare. “It’s a lot more up-tempo stuff,” Mercer told Spin of The Shins’ unrecorded material last August. “I haven’t really got any real ballad-y stuff right now. I’ve got 30 songs and none of them are real slow. I think maybe, I’m not so melancholy lately. I’m real happy. I’ve been lucky in love and I’ve got a wonderful kid now and things have been going well. Some of the songs are sort of aggressive in a new wave way. I’m excited about it.”

For the time being, then, fans are left to imagine what a new wave Shins record would sound like. And with Mercer’s assertion that he and Danger Mouse are already working on a follow-up to their March 9 Broken Bells debut, perhaps even a projected 2011 release date is an optimistic one for The Shins.

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