Broken Bells

Broken Bells is a collaboration between Shins lead singer James Mercer and Danger Mouse from Gnarls Barkley fame as well being a well known/sought after producer. He produced Gorillaz Demon Days record as well as last years not yet officially released Dark Night of the Soul. The album is self tilted and was released March 9th. Seems this collaboration is not just gonna be a one off but more of a long term thing, which is nice as they will have time to try new things.

It's a great album though not too dissimilar to a Shins record, which I imagine is hard to get away from when you have James Mercer on vocals. It is a mostly a mellow/downtempo record. What happens with me and slower records is that maybe they aren't my favorite right off the bat, but they tend to be growers and over the long haul usually become some of my favorites. I get the hunch that's what's gonna happen with this one. Definitely a great record to jam out to in your car on your daily commutes or late at night.

The first single is called 'The High Road' which reminds me of a Travis song and has an accompanying video of them walking the streets of the night and all that they encounter along the way.

A couple of my early favorites from the album are 'Your Head is on Fire' and 'The Ghost Inside', but like I said that might change with time. These are solid tracks though and will give you a good idea what to expect from the record.

***Update:: Broken Bell's label have asked us to take down these two tracks, but they have allowed us to post first single 'The High Road' + 'Vaporize' track 1 and 2 respectively from the record instead. Both great tracks that will give you a good idea of their sound as well.


MP3: The High Road - Broken Bells


MP3: Vaporize - Broken Bells