The Shins' New LP Surprise US Chart Hit

The Shins’s new album has become a surprise hit in their native America, climbing to number two in the Billboard charts.

The success of ‘Wincing The Night Away’ is even more surprising for the Sub Pop band as the album was available to download two weeks before the official release date due to a cock-up by iTunes.

However, singer James Mercer told BBC Six Music he wasn’t too bothered by the premature leak, “I wasn't too upset about it. I was kind of curious about what people thought about the record, and nobody at that point had it - and it had been months since it was done. I was kind of anxious to see some blogs. They had the lyrics all wrong though."

He added about the album, “I think Sub Pop would have loved this thing to have come out two years ago. We just sort of evaded their questions about 'when can you have it done?'

"There was a long while where I was struggling to get the lyrics. It was blood from a stone for a while."