“Simple Song” by The Shins

"Simple Song" was the first single from Port of Morrow, the Shins' fourth studio album, in 2012, and James Mercer wrote it at home in his apartment's living room, not long after he got married and in the stretch before his first daughter was born. He has said it's about his wife and the new life opening up ahead of them, and partly about the exits of drummer Jesse Sandoval and keyboardist Martin Crandall from the band.

You can hear both feelings in it: the guitars surge and glitter, the chorus climbs like it's been waiting years to get out, and Mercer's voice cracks open with something like relief. Greg Kurstin produced, recorded and piled on guitar, piano and keyboards, with Mercer co-producing; Dave Hernandez adds guitar, Ron Lewis plays bass, Janet Weiss drums, and Rich Costey mixed it.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.