Flake Music - When You Land Here, It's Time to Return

But even the best tunesmiths have to start somewhere and in the case of the Hawaii-born Mercer, that place is Flake Music – the band he fronted in the mid-1990s.

This was their only album and is finally getting the reissue treatment by the Sub Pop label.

Although decidedly lo-fi and devoid of the pristine production that we’ve come to expect from the man’s subsequent work, the genesis of Mercer’s whip-smart songwriting is present and correct.

‘Structo’ is a whimsical delight while ‘Spanway Heights’ is a sun-dappled pointer to the sort of hyper-literate songcraft evident on the first Shins album, Oh Inverted World.

And just in case you were wondering how Mercer came up with the name of his most celebrated band, consider that one of the better songs in this collection is called ‘The Shins’.

The album is let down by a batch of songs that are a little too indebted to Pavement and Weezer, but as a first attempt it’s not bad at all.

Key tracks: ‘Spanway Heights’; ‘Strucko’