SHINSPIRATION!

        Guys, The Shins new album Port of Morrow comes out TODAY (!!!), and it's safe to say that after their performance on SNL, I'm excited. I've always enjoyed a good Shins song, but this time I really plan on giving myself over. The one song that got stuck in my head right after I watched SNL (leave it to me to be like, oh yes, I was watching a sketch comedy show and THAT'S how I knew an artist's album is coming out) was "It's Only Life". There was just something about it that stuck with me...It's one of those great songs that you have to strain your neck upward a little to sing the one note in the chorus that makes your heart so happy.

        Well, for the past day or so I've been replaying it on my iPod and all up in my head, and then it hit me: WAIT A TICK...This melody is almost TOO famililar...Dare I say, it's already been a song before? I anxiously channeled my inner music catalog and started singing the recognizable portion of the song in complete gibberish until actual words formed. It was magical! The words that came to my head were, "Dreams see us through to forever/ Where clouds roll by/ For you and I." Those lyrics, my friends, are from the song "If We Hold on Together", feautured in the 1988 animated classic The Land Before Time. Oh okay, you sneaaaaky SHINS.

        Listen, Shins members, did you think this would go unnoticed? Let me quote another influential children's film of the past, The Sandlot, in saying, "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die!" I will go ahead and absolutely personify The Land Before Time as a legend. Here's the thing...What I just said sounds like I'm mad about the uncanny similarity between the two songs, but I'm not. I'm actually thrilled. Well played, maestros, channeling a movie from our generation's childhood to appeal to the vulnerable area of the heart that makes this song now totally irresistible to visit with. Check it out for yourself, mans and womans.