For a rock band, the passage of several years can be an eternity. From the time of their most recent album to their newest recordings, fans can only imagine what to expect from their favorite musicians as they make their return. In the case of The Shins’ Port of Morrow, it’s a rare instance with a well-established band coming back into the public ear while still having a roster that’s almost entirely new.

We’re drawn in with a bang with the lead-in song “The Rifle’s Spiral,” a respectable entry that easily has the coolest title track, though perhaps not the momentum necessary to sustain us as we start the process of listening to a new album. The beat picks up in the following tune, “Simple Song,” combining ethereal sadness and peppy pop in a package that’s anything but simple. It’s easy to see why this is the album’s first single, made available back in January as a teaser leading up to the regular release. Vocalist/guitarist James Mercer sticks to the poetic niche he’s made for himself, with his lyrics typically bizarre and dreamy and free of any conformation to meter, besides his own: “When I was just nine years old/ I swear that I dreamt/ your face on a football field/ and a kiss that I kept under my vest/apart from everything, but the heart in my chest.”

The mirthful “It’s Only Life” — also set for single status — is right behind “Simple Song,” with the less joyful but powerful “Bait and Switch” on track four. We don’t get to another high point until lucky number seven, the twangy “For a Fool,” a look back for one man with no shortage of poor life choices, the kind of sentiment and phrasing you’d expect out of a forlorn country singer. Even if it’s not what you’d anticipate, the indie rock style suits this kind of melody like a glove. Mercer refuses to subscribe to any one kind of sound, as evidenced by the next song, “Fall of ’82,” which blasts us out of any malaise “Fool” might have left us in with the sounds of trumpet and flugelhorn coming right out of the songbook of brass-heavy band Chicago.

If you think this sounds different — but not that different — from The Shins you used to know, it’s not too tough to discern a disparity between this and 2007’s superb “Wincing the Night Away.” Besides a switch to Columbia Records and Interscope Records, Mercer and label Aural Apothecary has an all-new band behind him with members Jesse Sandoval, Martin Crandall, and Dave Hernandez splitting in 2009, now replaced in this more studio-infused effort by drummer Joe Plummer, bassist Yuuki Matthews, guitarist Jessica Dobson, and Richard Swift on keyboards. A jumble of extra artists explains why no song sounds exactly the same as the one that preceded it, but Mercer and company have always prided themselves on making music that’s completely inimitable. Not every entry on the album is a winner — “September” and “No Way Down” stick out in particular as being second tier — but what the band, and especially Mercer, can boast is the ability to produce a sound that flows well from beginning to end, an undervalued talent in album production in an age of music where everyone’s iPod is set on shuffle.

Ending on a high note with the titular song, the arrangement of “Port of Morrow” proves The Shins are just as remarkable as a new group in a way that doesn’t try to diminish the accomplishments of the band’s previous members. With albums like Oh, Inverted World and Chutes Too Narrow to live up to, Mercer’s new assemblage won’t have it easy, but setting sail on choppy waters is less complicated when you’ve stocked up at a port with plenty to offer.

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars

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