Album review: Broken Bells, 'Broken Bells'
3 stars (out of 4)
Brian Burton, a k a Danger Mouse, is a fiend for collaboration, bringing his fondness for hip-hop-era pastiche, psychedelia and soul to projects with Cee-Lo Green (Gnarls Barkley), Damon Albarn (Gorillaz) and Beck. His latest partner is Shins singer James Mercer, a master pop craftsman who like Burton disdains excess of any kind.
Little wonder that their “Broken Bells” (Columbia) project, on which they play all the instruments, packs 11 meticulously orchestrated songs into less than 38 minutes. Burton puts a little wobble on just about every sound he conjures and Mercer pushes his voice outside its comfort zone, particularly in the upper register, making this a chilled little side-trip of an album.
The first half slides from one coolly laid-back melody to the next. Burton and Mercer organize a great many beautiful yet understated moments into surprisingly concise tunes without breaking a sweat. These songs feel like they could be much longer with their multi-part constructions; add a few solos to “Your Head is On Fire” and you’d have a decent progressive-rock suite. Instead, you get a nearly perfect three-minute pop song that plays like an homage to Brian Wilson at the height of his powers, a slightly woozy mix of strings, distorted keyboards, and inventively orchestrated voices, from monks-in-the-abbey moans to surf’s-up sighs. By the time Mercer breaks out a falsetto for the near-funky “Ghost Inside,” the album feels unstoppable.
The buzz wears off a bit in the second half, as a few pedestrian tunes (“Citizen,” “October”) mar the flow. Then along comes “Mongrel Heart” with a Spaghetti Western-style interlude that – much like this album – arrives as an unexpected yet completely worth-it detour.
greg@gregkot.com
Brian Burton, a k a Danger Mouse, is a fiend for collaboration, bringing his fondness for hip-hop-era pastiche, psychedelia and soul to projects with Cee-Lo Green (Gnarls Barkley), Damon Albarn (Gorillaz) and Beck. His latest partner is Shins singer James Mercer, a master pop craftsman who like Burton disdains excess of any kind.
Little wonder that their “Broken Bells” (Columbia) project, on which they play all the instruments, packs 11 meticulously orchestrated songs into less than 38 minutes. Burton puts a little wobble on just about every sound he conjures and Mercer pushes his voice outside its comfort zone, particularly in the upper register, making this a chilled little side-trip of an album.
The first half slides from one coolly laid-back melody to the next. Burton and Mercer organize a great many beautiful yet understated moments into surprisingly concise tunes without breaking a sweat. These songs feel like they could be much longer with their multi-part constructions; add a few solos to “Your Head is On Fire” and you’d have a decent progressive-rock suite. Instead, you get a nearly perfect three-minute pop song that plays like an homage to Brian Wilson at the height of his powers, a slightly woozy mix of strings, distorted keyboards, and inventively orchestrated voices, from monks-in-the-abbey moans to surf’s-up sighs. By the time Mercer breaks out a falsetto for the near-funky “Ghost Inside,” the album feels unstoppable.
The buzz wears off a bit in the second half, as a few pedestrian tunes (“Citizen,” “October”) mar the flow. Then along comes “Mongrel Heart” with a Spaghetti Western-style interlude that – much like this album – arrives as an unexpected yet completely worth-it detour.
greg@gregkot.com