Broken Bells doesn't go for broke

Broken Bells, the highly anticipated collaboration project of James Mercer, frontman for The Shins, and Brian Burton a.k.a. Danger Mouse, technical half of Gnarls Barkley and record producer extraordinaire, has arrived. 

Mercer’s work over the past decade has made its way into feature films, a McDonald’s Olympic commercial, and Natalie Portman’s CD player. Burton co-wrote Rolling Stone’s #1 song of the decade, Gnarls’ “Crazy,” and has applied his golden touch to others’ recent masterpieces including The Black Keys’ "Attack and Release" and Gorillaz’ "Demon Days." For months now, the combined brainpower of this new band has had fans of the duo’s prior work breathing heavily into paper bags.

What isn’t exciting about this album? "Chutes Too Narrow" times "St. Elsewhere?"  "Oh, Inverted World" to the "Grey Album"th power? The possibilities were endless.  Yet as is so often the case, this proved to be the band’s heaviest burden as their product has inevitably fallen victim to its own hype.

At their best, Broken Bells achieve sound harmony with propulsive beats animated by a catchy, Mercer-signature pop melody, especially in “The High Road” and “The Ghost Inside.”

At other times, they openly settle for mediocre with directionless songs that fail to push past the basics. The album ends on two less than high notes, the downright boring “Mongrel Heart” and “The Mall and Misery,” an improvement from the former but a letdown of a closer nonetheless. 

Other high points include nice density on songs like “Citizen” where modest horns fade out with a haunting piano riff, and shiny electronic accompaniment on “Vaporize” and “Your Head Is on Fire.”  

If you were as excited for this record as I was, it may very well disappoint you too, but Broken Bells is by no means a failure. Keep in mind that neither band member is working within his comfort zone. Burton did not play a single ”instrument” with Gnarls Barkley, but takes on drumming duties for the Bells’ live sets. 

And while The Shins’ most recent effort "Wincing the Night Away" hinted at Mercer’s migration towards studio refinement, this album is a far cry from his natural element of whimsical indie-folk.

Bottom line: these guys are challenging themselves, but aren’t quite ready to lay all of their cards out on the table. So enjoy this record for what it is and try not to hyperventilate when round two arrives.