Album · The Shins
Chutes Too Narrow by The Shins
Chutes Too Narrow is an album by The Shins, released in 2003. 2 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 16 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “So Says I”, on 8 lists with a best position of #40.
Chutes Too Narrow, the Shins' second album, came out on Sub Pop on October 21, 2003, and it sounds like James Mercer's band stepping out of the bedroom and into daylight. Phil Ek, a veteran of records by Built to Spill and Modest Mouse, produced it with the group and mixed it, sweeping away most of the lo-fi haze of Oh, Inverted World. The keyboards that steered the debut step aside for guitars that jangle, chime and now and then bite, while Mercer, the band's one constant, sings like he's trying to squeeze three melodies into every line. Annemarie Ruljancich's violin drifts through "Saint Simon", and the title itself comes from a line in "Young Pilgrims".
Critics fell hard for it, handing it an 88 out of 100 average on Metacritic, it had sold over 393,000 copies by August 2008, and Jesse LeDoux's cover art helped earn a Grammy nomination for the packaging.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Chutes Too Narrow on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | So Says I | 8 | #40 | – | 2004–2022 | |
| 2 | Kissing the Lipless | 8 | #59 | – | 2004–2024 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.