If anything can be taken as true about Brian “Danger Mouse” Burton given his operating procedures over the last twenty-four months, it is that he seems to deliberately try to force musicians out of their comfort zones as soon as he sits down in the producer's chair. How else would one explain the mammoth and sprawling sounds he concocted to run along with The Black Keys on Attack & Release? Or how he stunted the funk in Beck for Modern Guilt? It's just what Danger Mouse (nee Brian Burton) does and why he's been toasted repeatedly for his work.
Burton may have met his match in Shins singer/guitarist James Mercer though. Mercer has seemed to revel in being thrown off balance and being kept there since he and his band first started making quietly disquieting indie-pop in 2001 and typified by the success of Wincing The Night Away and its lead-off single “Phantom Limb.”
There are the players in this game laid out, and the results of their collaborative effort, Broken Bells, represent something of a quandary; how does a producer who has built a career from forcing his subjects out of their respective comfort boxes make interesting music with a player that has no box? That question presents itself a few times during the play of Broken Bells' self-titled debut; there are moments when the the producer and player seem to stand motionless before each other, each waiting for one another to move so they can start messing with any sound made. Because of that, the general design of Broken Bells becomes one of forced creativity made mobile by each man's own accord – they cannot stare each other down, but they have to do something.
Happily, such an unlikely creative process does indeed yield interesting results. The record opens with lugubrious, easy beats and minor key lamentation as Mercer murmurs about confusion in resigned, indifferent tones that no one would expect from him or from Burton. It's a good song, but miles from what anyone would expect from a world-class producer or the frontman of The Shins. Even so, it isn't awkward for the players either; it's just different.
Things start to make a little more sense with “Vaporize” – an easy pick for 'sophomore single' and the second song on the album. While still fairly spare in composition and generally slow of tempo, the easy key and chord progression make it possible for Mercer to open up and project his vocals. It's still not the single most solid effort from either Mercer or Burton, but things are beginning to firm up and take shape and listeners are held by the promise of misleading lines like, “And I doubt I'll ever know which way to go,” even as the singer is clearly beginning to get the hang of how best to present this brand of songwriting.
By the time the duo reaches “The Ghost Inside,” the finer points of the arrangement are worked out with a quasi-electro R&B form in place and Mercer feels comfortable enough to stretch his vocal register further than he ever has before which forces Danger Mouse to follow suit. What he comes up with are some Eighties AM radio-identified pop hooks that occasionally include synth dalliances and full string section arrangements (check “Sailing To Nowhere” and “Trap Doors”), but also a better-than-healthy dose of retro Brit-pop orthodoxy that deepens by the track; there are moments when listeners feel compelled to make sure they're not listening to an old Depeche Mode album because the trance the band is trying to cast does seem to be getting deeper, somehow. Impossibly, the record continues in this fashion until, by the time it reached “The Mall & Misery,” it's positively dour – even with the stringy guitars.
Taken as a whole, it could be supposed that Broken Bells was some kind of success for both Burton and Mercer as far as no one buckled or showed weakness or really dropped the ball at any point during the album's run-time. Mercer has never really had the opportunity to show off his vocal talent like he does here in songs like “Trap Doors,” “Citizen” or “The Mall & Misery,” and that's better than nothing, presumably. If one must take what he can get, one could say, “Success! Both singer and producer managed to confound each other.” Does that triumph make for a rewarding listen? Not really.
Artist:
www.brokenbells.com/
www.myspace.com/brokenbells
Download:
Broken Bells – "The High Road" – Broken Bells
Album:
Broken Bells is out now. Buy it here on Amazon .
