Album Review – Broken Bells

Music — By Andrew Evans on 09/03/10

It says a lot about James Mercer that just as his day job – playing frontman for indie kings The Shins – starts to gather some serious speed off the back of 2007’s Wincing The Night Away that he decides to pursue a side project. Even a half decent Shins album would likely see them cash in on the years of good will critics and fans have bestowed upon them.

Not a man to do to things by halves, Mercer’s  extracurricular activity see’s him team up with one of the world’s most in demand producers Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse, the tall half of Gnarls Barkley and creator of the Beatles/Jay Z mash-up The Grey Album).

The first glimpse we were given of Broken Bells came in the form of The High Road (download for free here), which despite Burton’s signature lo-fi drum sound doesn’t sound too much of a departure from Mercer’s other band. His elastic voice still glides over the accompaniment, which rather than the fuzzy electric guitars we have come to expect, takes a more electronic, groove based direction over the course of these ten tracks.

Whilst the array of instruments on display may differ slightly to that of The Shins, it doesn’t manage to stop a number of tracks sounding, rather sadly, like lost Wincing…demos. When Broken Bells do sound like themselves however, the record shines. The Ghost Inside see’s Mercer stretching out a slinky falsetto over staccato keyboards and retro handclaps, whilst Mongrel Heart possesses a dark heart beneath its electronic trickery.

Like a lot the output that come from side projects, Broken Bells is, sonically, all over the place and whilst you have to admire the experimentation the pair obviously went through to nail down a sound they are comfortable with, it’s a shame that it sounds as though they never quite got there – Sailing to Nowhere is an unneeded diversion into prog of all things.

All in all, from such an exciting proposition, it is hard to listen to this record without feeling a little disappointed. It is a crying shame that an album that promised so much amounts to little more than three pretty decent songs and seven rather forgettable ones.

6.5/10