Album Review: Broken Bells (4.5/5)

Danger Mouse made a name for himself in 2004 with the The Grey Album, a clever but illegal mashup of The Beatles White Album and Jay-Z's The Black Album. Since then, he's gone legit, becoming quite the successful producer, responsible for Gorillaz' Demon Days; Gnarls Barkley; The Good, the Bad and the Queen; and Beck's Modern Guilt. His sound is quite distinctive, and although it varies among these works, generally contains elements of hip-hop and soul, '60s rock, and electronic pop.

This time he's teamed up with James Mercer, lead vocalist and guitarist for The Shins, to form Broken Bells and release its eponymous debut. It's an instant success, evocative of his earlier work, particularly Gnarls Barkley and The Good, the Bad and the Queen, but distinctively its own sound too, one that is generally mellower than his previous works.

"The High Road" opens the album with a series of electronic blurts before settling in to its layered guitar and keyboard melody and rolling beat. A sing-along ending gives lifts the generally bitter vibe of the song to a warm conclusion. "Vaporize" is scored by organs, horns and raspy beats. It's fairly upbeat, but certainly not a balls-out rocker. This is one of the songs that reminds me of "The Good, the Bad and the Queen," along with the mellower "Sailing to Nowhere," which has a great middle section of wacky synths, acoustic and electric guitars, which transitions to the song's strings-dominant final act. The album's strong opening songs effectively set the stage for truly great "Your Head Is on Fire," featuring a lush, '60s-style wall-of-sound arrangement of vocals, synths, drums and strings.

"The Ghost Inside" picks up the tempo with a beat not dissimilar to Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy," and does some crazy stuff with Mercer's vocal halfway through the song, finishing with a marching flourish of strings, piano and guitar. A '60s vibe also inhabits "Trap Doors," another clear highlight, one with a stronger pop sound and a sense of heft. The following track "Citizen," in contrast, is light and airy--a mellow, acoustic number.

"Mongrel Heart" is another uptempo song with a minor key. It delivers some dark, Muse-like synths and a dramatic middle section of soaring strings, horns and background choral. The album's final track is also good, opening with a romantic, cinematic strings arrangement then transitioning to guitar rock.

It's hard to pick highlights on this album, since so much of it is good. Danger Mouse's influence is very clear, but there's a lot of contrasts here too, conveying an effective range of moods. It's definitely my favorite album of the year so far.

Best: Your Head Is on Fire, Trap Door, The Ghost Inside, Mongrel Heart, The High Road, Vaporize, Sailing to Nowhere