This approach was difficult for pianist Emi Okazaki, who had no experience with song production previously, and for drummer Keiichi Ejima, who learnt the guitar specifically to record demos for this album.

The first finished demo, created by Yamaguchi and bassist Ami Kusakari's for the song "Sen to Rei" strongly influenced the album's production.

The album led Sakanaction to be chosen one of the ten iTunes Japan Sound of 2009 artists, as well as nominated at the Life Music Award 2009.

Vocalist Ichiro Yamaguchi realized that staying in Sapporo was against the band's goal of making music for a much wider group of listeners, and was surprised when all of the members agreed with him.

[8] In April, Sakanaction had already started making songs for Shin-shiro, despite having just finished their tour in March for the band's second album Night Fishing, which had been released in January of the same year.

[7] Iwadera worked with Yamaguchi on the songs "Ame (B)" and "Namida Delight", Kusakari on "Sen to Rei", pianist Emi Okazaki on "Light Dance", and drummer Keiichi Ejima on the instrumental composition "Minnanouta".

[13] This pattern was not true for "Human", which was originally a song written before the album sessions, however was completely rewritten when included in Shin-shiro.

[13] "Adventure" was created before the band left for Tokyo while they were experimenting with more approachable and pop sounds, and was intended to become the album's leading single, in the role that was later filled by "Sen to Rei".

[12] Kusakari's version of the song "Sen to Rei" had a very strong guitar-based rock sound, which the band mixed with electronic music.

[21] "Sen to Rei" was a challenge for the band, to bring as many entertaining and popular aspects to their music as they could, to balance the underground attributes of their sound.

[26] The large amount of demos and separated work that each member was doing led to the creation of the instrumental song "Minnanouta" by Ejima.

[28][29] It was inspired by British rock band Queen's 1980s dance music, and was written as what Yamaguchi thought was an "old style cool" song in a verse–chorus form, featuring two verses and a chorus.

After fine-tuning the arrangement, and inserting "oriental" synths in the style of Japanese bands Yellow Magic Orchestra and Godiego, "Light Dance" settled at a new wave sound.

[28] Yamaguchi considered aspects of "Light Dance" and "Adventure" were similar to heavy metal, such as the bass drum being layered with different instruments, but felt that these would be interpreted as new wave by most people.

[33] The cover design was created by the creative team Hatos, and features a waveform visual representation of the album title "Shin-shiro" being spoken.

[40] On October 10, Sakanaction performed their first overseas concert, the Gentra X Ssamzie Sound Festival in Paju, South Korea.

Originally the band had planned on releasing a new studio album in March 2015, but they could not due to bassist Kusakari's pregnancy.

[3] CDJournal praised the fact that each song stands on its own musically, instead of being drowned out by the album's overarching digital sound.

[1] Yuji Tanaka of CDJournal described the album as "dynamic technotronica rock" that fused the feel of live music with four on the floor beats.

[2] For the leading single "Sen to Rei", CDJournal reviewers praised Sakanaction's "ever-changing sound", and were impressed with the changing vocals in the song's chorus.

[49] CDJournal praised Yamaguchi's "mostly detached but somehow cheerful vocals" in "Ame (B)", and felt that "Light Dance" was an "addictive, danceable number", and were impressed with the song's guitar solo, as well as how the digital sound brought up feelings of impatience and doubt.

[1] For the instrumental track "Minnanouta", the reviewers praised the arrangement as "marvelous techno", and noted the song's distinctive sound loop, that "called out intoxication and ecstasy".

[50] She singled out "Native Dancer" for its "beautiful fusion of acoustic and synth sounds", and felt that "Zattō" managed to be profound despite its simple arrangement.

[53] In its debut week, Shin-shiro was the eighth most sold album in Japan according to the Japanese music chart Oricon, selling 12,000 copies.

[54] During the release of the band's single "Aruku Around" in January 2010, the album re-charted for a seven weeks, selling an additional 4,000 copies.