Broken Bells - Broken Bells

Back in 2004, before internet buzz became ultra-instant, a young producer named Danger Mouse became famous by mashing up the vocals from Jay-Z's Black Album with the Beatles' White Album creating, you guessed it, the Grey Album. Ultimately, the Grey Album was more notable for it's concept than its execution (except for this badass version of 99 Problems, mixed with Helter Skelter). But the project launched DM's career into the stratosphere and he would go on to work with the likes of The Gorillaz, Cee-Lo, Beck, The Black Keys and many more, with the latest being the Shins' James Mercer. But we'll get to that soon enough.

Coincidentally, it was also 2004 when Natalie Portman's scripted recommendation was enough to create quite the buzz of it's own. I'm referring to, of course, the "indie" movie Garden State, in which Portman's character claimed that the Shin's would "change your life." That moment certainly changed the Shins' lives more than they changed mine (they didn't). (Oddly, several days after I wrote this sentence, I came across this article on that exact subject.)

So now here we are, 6 years removed from those two unconnected events that strangely found a way to come together (cosmic, man) in the form of Broken Bells, the latest collabo between Danger Mouse and __________. A lot of time has passed since DM splashed his name all over the internet with the Grey Album or even when he took over the airwaves with Cee-Lo as Gnarls Barkley. And much like the vegetables in my fridge right now, what was once fresh is now just old and soggy. Danger Mouse hasn't grown much as a producer these last few years. As documented in older posts, I found his recent projects with the Black Keys and Beck to be varying degrees of bland and uninspired. He took the funk out of Beck, and that is just plain wrong.

All that being said, Broken Bells still manages to be a solid album, probably on the strength of Mercer's voice. While DM's sounds are a bit vanilla, he doesn't take away from what the artists with whom he works are. That's great and all, but I feel that a good producer should push whomever they're working with into new creative heights.

Trying to pick out a favorite track isn't very easy, since they all sort of run together. This is an album you can play front to end, a rare feat, but not because it is so great, but because it's so plain. You probably won't skip any songs, but you won't be reaching for that 'repeat' button either.