The Shins quietly made their return to the headlines on Friday with the release of their first new music since 2017 in the form of a single entitled, “The Great Divide”.
The new track was co-written and produced by James Mercer, Jon Sortland, and Yuuki Matthews, and was released via Mercer’s Aural Apothecary imprint alongside Monotone Records, Spin reports.
Mercer describes the indie rock band’s latest release as “A blend of futurism and nostalgia. We used everything from vintage synthesizers to iPhones, from a sixties Ludwig kit to an 808 … It’s an epic about longing and love in a broken world – I guess we wanted to try to provide a bit of warmth and sentiment in hard times.”
The veteran indie-rock band also shared the official video for “The Great Divide” to go with its release on Friday, which was directed by Paul Trillo, with additional creative direction from Sortland. Watch the mesmerizing video below.
The Shins – “The Great Divide”
[Video: TheShins]
Additionally, the band shared a “Flipped” version of “The Great Divide” via Amazon Music‘s Stay Indie playlist.
Mercer added about the song’s alternate recording,
When the Shins do a ‘flipped’ version of a song, the goal is always to re-approach the production aesthetic and show a different side to the piece. The idea is that a song properly written can be framed in many different contexts and still remain engaging. Yuuki Matthews, Jon Sortland and I sat down and talked about how we could change things up. The original idea was to treat it like a piano ballad but that soon gave way to Yuuki‘s moody post new wave treatment. I immediately loved it and so the direction was established. When we flip a song correctly you should have a hard time picking which version you like best!
Since 2017’s Heartworms Mercer has contributed to non-Shins projects, including a guest appearance on the song “My Resolve” which appeared on Bruce Hornsby‘s 2020 studio album, Non-Secure Connection.
[H/TÂ Spin]