The Shins (the band) were named after the family the Shins, from the play The Music Man, which was a favorite of Mercers father and obviously had a great effect on him. I imagine this song is titled for the same reason, and some of the imagery is relevant to the musical.
And I don't think Mercer writes too many songs about being heartbroken by a girl, because it's so trite. I firmly believe he was a great songwriter from the beginning, and any lyrics he writes about such cliche things like heartbreak wont be written from the same mold as every other pop song.
The very first lyric, "Is it too hard when they're nice?" strikes me as an adaptation of the age old script where a thief deceives someone to get close enough to them to rob them of something, like the story of the Music Man works. After the thief gets close enough to his victim he then starts to feel empathy for them because they have been so nice, and it makes it hard to hurt them. Obviously this works on many more levels than that of money or valuables. I am not sure, however, how the rest of the lyrics fit into that mold. I imagine it evaluates the mindset of the wrong-doer.
The Shins (the band) were named after the family the Shins, from the play The Music Man, which was a favorite of Mercers father and obviously had a great effect on him. I imagine this song is titled for the same reason, and some of the imagery is relevant to the musical.
And I don't think Mercer writes too many songs about being heartbroken by a girl, because it's so trite. I firmly believe he was a great songwriter from the beginning, and any lyrics he writes about such cliche things like heartbreak wont be written from the same mold as every other pop song.
The very first lyric, "Is it too hard when they're nice?" strikes me as an adaptation of the age old script where a thief deceives someone to get close enough to them to rob them of something, like the story of the Music Man works. After the thief gets close enough to his victim he then starts to feel empathy for them because they have been so nice, and it makes it hard to hurt them. Obviously this works on many more levels than that of money or valuables. I am not sure, however, how the rest of the lyrics fit into that mold. I imagine it evaluates the mindset of the wrong-doer.