"...There's a time-honored imperative to encourage bands for attempting to develop and expand, and the Shins could certainly take their music in many different directions with great success. But it's hard not to notice that the least adventurous tracks on Wincing the Night Away are generally the most rewarding. In many cases, the album's more experimental touches seem at odds with the natural elegance of Mercer's songwriting, making it hard to read the album as a shoddy blueprint of what a more "difficult" Shins record might sound like. Instead, Wincing the Night Away is a lovely and well-executed album and-- for the first time in the band's career-- nothing more."

- Pitchfork