Ask the band directly, what are The Shins about, and the four friends' free-for-all flow of deadpan wit, wild metaphor and the occasional outburst of song (evidence of not just a clever group of people but a happy one) stops cold.

"Oh, I don't know," begins a hesitant James Mercer, who as The Shins' primary songwriter and singer is generally deferred to in interviews.

"Oh, that's really hard," cuts in keyboardist Marty Crandall with uncharacteristic gravity. "It's like impossible to do."