Song · The Shins
“Dead Alive” by The Shins
From the album Heartworms (2017)
“Dead Alive” by The Shins appears on 2 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 2016 and 2024. It was first released in 2017 on the album Heartworms. Its best result is #77 on the WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2016. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #353 indie & aaa song of 2016 and #5,732 indie & aaa song of all time.
"Dead Alive" comes from Heartworms, the fifth Shins album and their first in five years, which Columbia released on March 10, 2017. It's James Mercer's show almost top to bottom: he wrote it, produced it, sings lead and plays guitar, bass and percussion. Mark Watrous adds guitar and piano, Joe Plummer drums, and Yuuki Matthews plays synthesizer and mixed the track.
Mercer produced nearly all of Heartworms himself, handing only "So Now What" to former bandmate Richard Swift, and the cover art draws on Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Spectre, a Japanese ukiyo-e triptych. Critics were largely kind, with Metacritic averaging 73 from twenty reviews.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.
RockLists rankings
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 77 | WFUV New York, NY | WFUV Top 90 Songs of 2016 | 90 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 629 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Songs of the 21st Century | 1055 |
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