Well, black and white Pop Rocks – just as sweet and with the same kick, but definitely void of color. The album, with an emphasis on the rich range of tones between white and black, mingles the flavors of John Keats and Edgar Allan Poe beneath a Dr.,”

If Miles Davis' Birth of Cool is rich, dark chocolate, the Shins' Wincing the Night Away is Pop Rocks.

Well, black and white Pop Rocks – just as sweet and with the same kick, but definitely void of color. The album, with an emphasis on the rich range of tones between white and black, mingles the flavors of John Keats and Edgar Allan Poe beneath a Dr. Suessian shell and Mercer Mayer crunch (and not just because he shares his first name with the surname of the Shins' lead singer).

At first listen, you'll find breezy, three-minute fairy tales floating around Wincing the Night Away. Only upon closer examination, the Shins' tales feature "impossible crime," "pilfered booze" and characters who have "pissed on far too many sprites."

On this album, even more than on their two previous releases, the Shins successfully execute typically childish sounds, like "ooo"s, "la la la"s and the harmonizing of many high-pitched voices without sounding childish at all. Rather, the Oregonian quartet gracefully highlights the contrast between their ironically playful sound and the darkness and heartbreak of lead singer James Mercer's lyrics.

The closing track, "A Comet Appears," for example, includes softly chirping birds, slightly muted by draping, melancholic lyrics and simple, sad guitar chords. The middle of this song seeps through as the most beautiful sound on the album, with basic notes that softly collide with Mercer's eerie voice to drown the listener in the Romantic ballad.

Mercer coos, "Carve my again face off/ fetch a knife/ start with my eyes/ down so the lines/ form a grimacing smile."

Not many pop bands can swab self-deprecating gore together with chirping birds to create a sweet, infectious piece of music.

Another album zenith pops up on "Phantom Limb." Most like their previous works than any other track on Wincing the Night Away, this song meanders around and brings back the characteristic Shins tambourine. (Check out abcnews.go.com for a clip from Friday's World News Tonight, which featured the Shins' new fan-generated music video for the track.)

With experience comes the confidence to experiment and the luxury of a fan base that will make your videos for free.

Wincing the Night Away serves as the Shins' third album. Their previous albums, Oh, Inverted World (2002, Sub Pop Records) and Chutes Too Narrow (2003), have sold 500,000 copies. Much of the Shins' success has been attributed to the prominence of their singles featured in "Garden State."

This surge in popularity put pressure on the band. Like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot for Wilco and Transatlanticism for Death Cab for Cutie, the Shins needed to prove with Wincing the Night Away that they could transcend the "indie pop" genre to obtain mainstream success while maintaining their artistic integrity and independent identity.

The album does just that.

Still, however lush and aesthetically successful, Wincing the Night Away leaves listeners thirsty for a driving track like Oh, Inverted World's "Caring is Creepy" or Chute's Too Narrow's "Kissing the Lipless." Where these opening tracks kick off the albums with some popping Pop Rocks, the new release begins with "Sleeping Lessons." Pretty self-explanatory.

Hopefully, with less pressure and more experience, the Shins' next album can blur the popping power tunes of their earlier albums with the eerie tales on Wincing the Night Away to create the ethereal and witty album fans have been waiting for since they heard "New Slang" in "Garden State" for the first time.