James Mercer might be bit self-conscious about his music. He sounds a little bitter on The Shins’ new record, Oh, Inverted World. On “Pressed in a Book” he spits out: “I know when you hear these sappy lines/you’ll roll you eyes and say nice try.”

Describing his pitfalls with acrid vulnerability, Mercer fills World with adolescent angst that recalls when “Jeremy spoke in class today.”

Since forming in Albuquerque, N.M., nine years ago, Mercer’s quartet changed names and swapped instruments a handful of times before settling into its current incarnation in 1997. Leaning heavily on the conventions of pop, hook and harmony mastered by Brian Wilson, The Shins submit its own sensibilities to the formula.

World’s songs come stripped of any excess fat. No extra measures to fill out a song’s verse, it’s just straight onto the chorus for The Shins. This is pure pop that doesn’t sound 30 years old. And if the chord progressions are fairly standard, the melodies are challenging, evoking the lyrical flow of Sunny Day Real Estate. This to complement Mercer’s lyrically post-modern take on traditional rock and roll themes.

Although The Shins’ chosen indie-rock path is nothing if not well-tread, World still comes off as sophisticated, smart music. Mercer’s voice in particular transcends any standard influences. It strikes with piercing, precise clarity when, for instance, a song calls for an unexpected resolution of a phrase — which is often the case on World. For mellower songs like “New Slang,” he switches to surprisingly folksy lower registers. The instrumentation is spare, engaging only subtle keyboard coloration to expand on a jangley guitar/bass/drums drive.

You’ll forgive James Mercer if he’s a little bitter these days. The defenses just seem to come out when he’s singing lines like “two fallen saplings in an open field” and writing some annoyingly satisfying songs. nyou