Broken Bells: What happens when The Shins meet Danger Mouse?
Supergroup At Its Best When Not Trying To Fix What Isn’t, Um, Damaged.
Broken Bells
Broken Bells
Released on Mar 09, 2010
Music aficionados were justifiably geeked when it was announced that the long-rumored union between Shins bandleader James Mercer and uber-producer Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton) had finally come to fruition in the form of Broken Bells. Mercer, after all, had been responsible for some of the best songwriting of the decade for three albums running, and multiple experiments in pop collaboration by Burton had proved wildly successful (most notably with Gnarls Barkley and their ubiquitous “Crazy” and Beck’s underrated Modern Guilt). Broken Bells, while the product of a more unlikely pairing than Burton and his more frequently groove-minded partners, is at times so fluid that the idea of the two working together seems like it should have been obvious to everyone. While the record at times succumbs to the common tendency of “supergroups” to attempt to separate the distinct voices of their members from the group (a large part of what made the prospect of collaboration so intriguing in the first place), Broken Bells finds its sweet spot when Mercer and Burton embrace what they already bring to the table.
Broken Bells are at their best when the considerable strengths of both members are treated as components of a greater whole. Lead single “The High Road,” a wonderful fusion of Mercer’s songwriting and Burton’s slick production, begins the album brilliantly. Mercer’s lament that “it’s too late to change your mind” adds a curious note of melancholy to the beginning of the duo’s collaboration, and adds some weight to the song’s easy swing. Mercer and Burton find a seamless middle ground on the breezy “Vaporize,” which melds the basic framework of a Shins song to an organ-drenched funk backing track with exhilarating results. Hints of fellow future-pop duo Air are evident during the groovy desert exotica of “Your Head is on Fire” and otherworldly ballad “Citizen,” the latter providing the record’s most compelling example of how exciting Broken Bells can be when the collaboration hits its groove.
Conversely, the record falters when the duo steps outside of its comfort zone. AM-lite confection “The Ghost Inside” swaggers like down-tempo disco, but misses the boat with an awkward lead vocal and ill-conceived melody. Burton seems a little lost in the arrangement of “Sailing to Nowhere,” which sounds as if it were conceived by Mercer as the Shins’ “big waltz number” and ends up bloated with a kitchen-sink production approach that never gives the song enough room to settle. Late in the album, “Mongrel Heart” employs a standard Mercer melody that doesn’t fit the jittery motorik and late-period Portishead synthesizer of Burton’s arrangement. Interestingly placed strings and mariachi-influenced trumpet add nice moments to the track, but the production again winds up overstuffing, rather than augmenting, the relatively simple pop song at the piece’s core.
Broken Bells is a collaboration that at its best feels like an extremely natural progression for both Mercer and Burton. The album’s occasionally strained efforts to create something “new” are all the more frustrating because the fusion of the disparate styles of The Shins and Danger Mouse is already unlike much that we’ve heard before. That the pair is so talented and their distinct musical voices suit each other so well is cause to celebrate the record’s many high points, and to await its follow-up.
High Point
A surprisingly comfortable partnership, Burton and Mercer produce real beauty when playing to their strengths.
Low Point
A handful of songs misfire in their attempt to discover new territory, and the two occasionally struggle to integrate their respective contributions to the group.
Posted by Miguel Harvey on Mar 10, 2010 @ 6:30 am
