James Mercer has often used the mall as lyrical metaphor. Well, at least for a few productive years he did. Before that, the mall was more mall than metaphor. …At some point, Mercer and the mall had a falling out.

The Early Mall Period: The Mall as Friend

Know Your Onion – The Shins – Oh, Inverted World – 2001

Lucked out

Found my favorite record

Lying in wait at the Birmingham mall

The songs that I heard

The occasional book

Were the only fun I ever took

And I got on with making myself

Oh, so innocent. Reflecting on the mall as a gateway to experience the world. Younger James Mercer still remembers the mall fondly. Give it time. Give it time. [video]

Kissing The Lipless – The Shins – Chutes Too Narrow – 2003

These lyrics don’t mention the mall, and the song has nothing to do with consumerism, but its video prominently features one of the most remarkable aspects of the Lloyd Center Mall, its ice rink.

The Middle Mall Period: The Mall as Foe

Australia – The Shins – Wincing the Night Away – 2007

Is 2003 James Mercer still romanticizing the mall? Maybe.

Is the automall a mall? Sure! So you get to watch Mercer and crew have fun wreaking havoc at a car dealership mall. Cute video. The song could loosely be interpreted as anti-consumerism, but really, it’s anti-job. This is the tip of the Mercer-mall metaphor.

Nothing at All – The Shins – (Single-Only) – 2007

You got a feeling nothing here is free

‘Cause you grew up in a mall

The mall? Nah. It’s nothing at all. [video]

The Mall & Misery – Broken Bells – Broken Bells – 2010

I know what I know

But nothing will fill the hole

So let your mind go (let my mind go)

Straight down the runway

Does one want to

Get more used to?

The mall and misery (the mall and the misery)

The dead mouths it costs to be alive

You can take the Mercer out of The Shins but you can’t take the mall out of the Mercer. Or can you? Buy! Buy! Buy! Consumerism time! [video]

The Rifle’s Spiral – The Shins – Port of Morrow – 2012

Primitive mural on the wall,

To fortify your grim resolve.

Amid the glitz of a shopping mall

Another grain of indigent salt for the sea.

Consumerism is only skin-deep? It’s a fraud, inside. [video]

No Way Down – The Shins – Port of Morrow – 2012

Out beyond the western squalls

In an alien land

They work for nothing at all

They don’t know the mall or the layaway plan Dig yourself a beautiful grave

Everything you could want

Maybe those invisible slaves

Are too far away for a ghost to haunt

Mercer is talking about the cost of global consumerism here, no doubt. More from an interview. [oh yeah, and what passes as a video]

The Late Post-Mall Period: Mall? What Mall?

Did I miss any? Let me know. James hasn’t chirped about the mall in almost a decade.

Abandoned mall. Where did you go? [Img Source]

Dan Dreifort’s seen The Shins a couple times. He generally likes their ‘mall period’ output more than their ‘post-mall period’ pieces. Props to u/EthanWins at r/TheShins subreddit for the add of Nothing at All.

