Listen: The Shins’ Bold New Single ‘Simple Song’

The Shins revealed “Simple Song,” the first single from their forthcoming fourth album, Port of Morrow, this afternoon. The track is the first new piece of music released by the band since their third LP, Wincing the Night Away, came out in 2007.

Though “Simple Song” has a melodic sensibility that will be familiar from previous Shins releases, it has a bolder and more assertive sound, with James Mercer’s delicate vocal melody ascending over a chunky guitar riff that owes more to the classic power pop of Big Star than the chiming Byrds-like arpeggios of the band’s breakthrough records Oh, Inverted World and Chutes Too Narrow.

You can check out a stream of “Simple Song” below. If you pre-order the new album from the Shins’ website, the band will send you an mp3 of the song tomorrow. Port of Morrow will hit stores on March 20th.