Broken Bells’ Debut – Essential New Music
Completely incredible that I am writing about an album that doesn’t come out until March 9th, and yet I am late, compared to the many more diligent blogs around. This isn’t even fashionably late, I think we’ve gone far beyond that. Yet I can’t help feeling that it’s completely insane for this to be the case, and even more crazy to let that be a reason not to write about it.
James Mercer (of The Shins “fame”) and Danger Mouse (of, well, Danger Mouse fame) threw together this selection of songs at Danger Mouse’s home studios, naming the project Broken Bells. The thing is, that it would have been pretty impossible for these two musical geniuses to walk into a room containing musical instruments, and come out having created anything less than this staggeringly accomplished album. That said, I’m not sure we really expected it to be this good. Although there were perhaps question marks about how the unavoidably individual styles of these two musicians would accommodate each other, Danger Mouse filters Mercer’s characteristic vocals through trademarks organs, nodding back towards classic hip hop, and the precise beats of Gnarls Barkley, and the results are, well, for you to discover below.
Throughout it all, not a line or even a note sounds strained or forced; this is, unmistakeably, two entirely successful musicians simply enjoying making music, and it genuinely makes for a fantastic album. Just goes to show that no expectations from devoted fans, no distracting pressures, and no money problems really do provide the conditions for surprisingly great albums. Here’s hoping this won’t be their last, but if it’s not, then they’ll certainly have a lot to live up to.
Broken Bells – The Ghost Inside
“October” is also essential listening, but the duo are signed to Sony, so I am already quite apprehensive as to the disciplining that the Web Sheriff is going to hand out.
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January 11th, 2010 at 1:13 am
Awesome post! Can’t wait to hear more stuff from Broken Bells over the coming weeks. You can sign up for the band’s email list at brokenbells.com. Get excited!
January 11th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
WEB SHERIFF
Who You Gonna Call
Tel 44-(0)208-323 8013
Fax 44-(0)208 323 8080
websheriff@websheriff.com
http://www.websheriff.com
Hi Not Many Experts,
On behalf of Columbia Records, Monotone and Broken Bells, we would kindly ask you not to post copies of the “Broken Bells” / eponymous album on your site (or any non-preview tracks from Broken Bells’ new album – street date 9th March).
We do appreciate that you are fans of / are promoting Broken Bells, but the label, management and artists would greatly appreciate your co-operation in removing your links to the pirate files in question.
Thank you for respecting the artists’ wishes and, if you / your readers want good quality, non-pirated, preview tracks, then full length versions of “The High Road” (as already feature by you) and “Vaporize” are available for fans and bloggers to link to / post / host etc at http://www.brokenbells.com … .. for further details of the new album, special pre-orders, on-line promotions, videos and 2010 shows, check-out the official site, as well as the artists’ MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/brokenbells and YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/brokenbells … .. and keep an eye on these official sources for details of further news, preview material and on-line promotions.
With Thanks & Regards,
WEB SHERIFF
January 11th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
It will really be worth the wait, Matt! I’ve got a lot of respect for The Shins, but they’re far from being my favourite band, and Danger Mouse has just… passed me by I guess, so I was surprised about how excited I got about this record. Guess that just shows how incredible it really is!
January 11th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
Great post, great tunes! Can’t wait to get my hands on this collaborations… I still think it is quite disappointing that album’s are leaking so early, great for listeners but bad for artists.
January 12th, 2010 at 5:34 pm
Thanks for the comment Anonymous. I have to agree with you that albums leaking so early is pretty damaging, but it also has positive effects. In fact, it’s just a huge debate, and whilst I’d love to expand, there’s just isn’t the time, and the problem certainly isn’t going to be solved in my comments section! I’m glad that people are interested, though, and I might get it into a post in future.
January 28th, 2010 at 7:40 pm
Love your blog, see you then.
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