James Mercer and
Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton) want their project
Broken Bells to be seen, and heard, as an honest-to-goodness band, not a side-project dalliance. It's a little tricky to do that when first listening to their self-titled debut album, since they're such well-known and distinctive talents:
Mercer crafted singularly bittersweet indie pop with
the Shins, while Burton brought
the Beatles and
Jay-Z together on The Grey Album and went on to shape sounds for equally omnivorous artists like
Beck and
Gorillaz.
Mercer's songwriting skills and
Danger Mouse's production mastery sound like a potent combo, and they are, when the pair balances its ambitions and respective strengths.
Mercer's vocals and melodies will almost certainly evoke
the Shins to some degree or another, but he and Burton steer clear of the bright pop that countered that band's gloomier moments in favor of winding melodies and mellow atmosphere with lush production and arrangements. “Citizen” presents its small melody in lavish surroundings -- it’s hazy bedroom pop, if that bedroom were in a five-star hotel with 1000-thread-count sheets. “The High Road” melds slick electronic percussion and a searching, minor-key melody into something that echoes the duo’s previous work without rehashing it. “The Ghost Inside” is especially exciting, pushing
Mercer outside of his comfort zone by pairing his falsetto with wobbly keyboards and strings. Toward the end,
Broken Bells break out of their reflective mood with “Mongrel Heart” and “The Mall & the Misery,” which, after a lengthy expanse of strings and horns, closes the album with some crisp chamber pop. ~ Heather Phares