The Shins, "Wincing The Night Away" (Sub Pop) - 3 stars

After changing everyone’s lives (thanks, Natalie Portman), James Mercer and his Portland posse are back. The Shins, whose jangly melodies and eccentric poetry became all too well-known with a double appearance on the “Garden State” soundtrack, now experiment with a more fleshed-out sound on their third album, “Wincing the Night Away.”

The tracks off “Wincing” are less instantly adorable than the band’s former hits. Upbeat tunes “Australia” and “Red Rabbits” offer a taste of Mercer & co.’s old-school eclecticism before they too fall victim to the album’s noisy, unnecessary fuzz. Even the softly spoken ballad, “A Comet Appears,” is too familiar to be considered a total reinvention and too mediocre to hold a place with the rest of The Shins oeuvre.

The Shins’ old albums gave us quirky, inventive music that became corrupted by association. “Wincing the Night Away” is corrupted from the get-go, and it seems to have been written with a coming-of-age movie script in mind. Catchy, yet safe, the album’s songs won’t change your life. They’ll just remind you how much you loved The Shins before Portman said you should.