There must be, somewhere between Portland, Ore., and Albuquerque, N.M., a deep and plentiful well of musical secrets, from which an unlikely band has found the key to success. The Shins knew to dip deep again in order to craft their third full-length album, Wincing the Night Away, and the result is once again one of joy and wonder.

The group’s acute attention to detail has been the water from their secret well, and with it those Portland-based underdogs who play seemingly simple and whimsical pop tunes have come to define nearly the entire musical genre of indie-rock. They are the poster-boys of the current Sup Pop label lineup and probably the most mainstream-embraced independent rock group around today.

Still, they have something to prove. Although Wincing the Night Away are their third LP, the Shins are best known for their debut album, Oh, Inverted World. Most of that credit goes, of course, to director Zach Braff, who used songs from Oh, Inverted World in his 2004 film Garden State.

Unfortunately for fans who have only come to love the Shins through Garden State, the band has been moving away from their original sound. The Shins’ albums have shown a progression from short-yet-sweet pop tunes to a drier, less charming sound, as evidenced on their sophomore album Chutes Too Narrow as well as Wincing the Night Away. The songs on Wincing the Night Away, especially, are not short and simple. Instead, the songs have more length, more sounds and more instruments packed in each song, and, although the album is still an easy listen, Wincing the Night Away’s finer points definitely seep in: that rough acoustic guitar, the tight drumming and some wondrous keyboard noises all working together to create numerous catchy melodies.

This progression may come in part from producer Phil Ek, known primarily for his work during the ’90s with the indie prog-rock group Built to Spill, a band whose song structures would never be confused with that of the Shins. This is not to say the Shins are becoming a prog-rock band by any means, but only that Oh, Inverted World is a sound of the past. Wincing the Night Away is an album of few choruses and rambling verses.

The recording quality and equipment is noticeably improved, allowing not only the vocals to come out clearer, but also allowing the band to continue doing what gives them their magic powers: paying attention to detail. With a greater ability to layer those intricate vocals and sounds, the Shins no longer sound like a band trapped in your cupboard; the vocals no longer sound muffled and the guitars no longer sound dulled. They’ve also added a band member, Eric Johnson, formerly of the Fruit Bats (basically a Shins cover band), to add more texture to their songs and help increase onstage presence for live shows.

The title of the album comes from a play on the phrase “twisting the night away,” a pun in this case – sure, you might want to dance to the Shins, but the title actually refers to frontman James Mercer’s insomnia problem, which also explains the title of the first song, “Sleeping Lessons.” Wincing the Night Away is an album of few choruses and rambling verses; as usual, Mercer sings of personal perils and social situations in his songs.

“Just put yourself in my new shoes/ And see that I do what I do/ Because the old guard still offend/ We got nothing left on which we depend/ So we waste every ounce/ Of your bright blood/ And off with their heads,” Mercer softly sings on the opening track.

Other good tracks include the first single “Phantom Limb,” the Chutes Too Narrow-sounding “Turn on Me” and “Australia.”

“You’d be damned to be one of us girl/ Faced with a dodo’s conundrum/ I felt like I could just fly/ But nothing happened every time I tried,” Mercer sings with his usual whimsical wit on “Australia.”

But unlike previous Shins albums, not every song is a perfect hit, and the first half of the album is somewhat better than the second. Tracks eight through 11 aren’t necessarily bad, but they do seem to lack that special Shins appeal – for example, the melodies on “Sea Legs,” “Black Wave” and “Spilt Needles” have fewer hooks, and the lyrics are less interesting. The bottom line is that the album is simply not as catchy as its predecessors.

The melodies float on nearly as smoothly as they do on the Shins’ debut, but the magic feels drained toward the end of Wincing the Night Away. The complexity, the wonder, the joy of the Shins is all still there, but there’s nothing very memorable on the album. While it is a well-done release that fans of the Shins should enjoy listening to, Wincing the Night Away may cause the band’s famous charm to be considered a thing of the past – the sound of their debut album certainly is.