I consider Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse) a musical Midas. From his Jay-Z/Beatles mash up The Grey Album to making everyone go crazy for Cee-Lo with Gnarls Barkley (cwatididthere), he's taken a whole host of projects and made them smash hits. Even more impressive is how he's kept his Wizard of Oz status, engineering this success while hiding behind the veil of his finished products. Now teaming up with Shins frontman James Mercer for Broken Bells, his newest project, Burton has put himself in the forefront more than ever (manning the group's drumming duties), resulting in some of his best work yet.
Broken Bells is very much a nighttime record. Rocketing off with the digital bleeps of lead single "The High Road", the album's combination of Burton's spacey beats and Mercer's spectral wails gives off an aura of floating through outer space. Feel yourself dangling weightlessly during tracks like the piano-led "October" where a loopy bass line and static-laden electronics couple with Mercer's tortured call before drifting into a chorus of dreamy coos.
While Mercer's echoing vocals add the psychedelic nature to the pop gems (see: "Trap Doors"), it's Burton's production that gives the record substance. On "Vaporize" an acoustic guitar and hazy synths evoke the same visuals as the thumping beat and hand-claps on likely second single "The Ghost Inside".
The synthesis of pop music, visual stimulation, and some good ass grooves make Broken Bells one of the best records of the year and arguably Danger Mouse's top project yet. For a guy whose worked with as many hit makers as Burton has (Black Keys, Gorillaz, Beck...just to name a few), that's saying a lot.
Grade: 8.8/10
Buy: Broken Bells - Broken Bells
MySpace: Broken Bells
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