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Product Description
Review
The word "psychedelic" is one of those phrases – like "genius", "edgy" and "Pete Doherty arrested" – which has become somewhat devalued by over-use. Yet it certainly suits this collaboration between The Shins frontman James Mercer and studio maverick Brian ‘Danger Mouse’ Burton – a short (barely 37 minutes), sweet’n’sour and head-spinningly trippy affair.
Since first seizing our attention with The Grey Album in 2004 – an inspired, irreverent shotgun marriage of Jay-Z’s Black Album with The Beatles’ White Album – Danger Mouse has been the hardest working whiz kid in show business, collaborating with everyone from Gorillaz to Beck between holding down a day job as one half of Gnarls Barkley. You might imagine he was spreading himself a bit thin, but hooking up with Mercer seems to have unlocked new stores of creativity.
Ears are pricked from the first bars of opener The High Road. Toytown melodica forms some delightfully incongruous icing on a sumptuous melodic layer cake, built on a bed of lilting acoustic guitar chords and then covered in warm creamy harmonies, finished with a lullaby sing-along.
Mercer’s gently off-beam pop songs are lit up colourfully by the duo’s choice of arrangements. Vaporize lulls you into a sweet reverie with mariachi horns and hypnotic backing vocals, while the uneasy urgency of Mongrel Heart eases off into a giddy carousel of Wurlitzer-style organ. And just as you’re getting comfortable, the lyrical barbs appear: “Don’t laugh, we’ve been through this / If you want to f*** with me, you should know…”
Your Head Is on Fire sounds like it has resurrected lost snippets from The Beach Boys’ Smile sessions, before waves of wah-wah-ing keyboards and whispering mantras softly lap at your ears. It’s intoxicating stuff. And the songs also hold up in different stylistic clothing: The Ghost Inside’s falsetto vocals, simple four-chord chorus and shimmying pop groove has echoes of unlikely bedfellows such as The Dandy Warhols.
The vibe is a dreamy one throughout, but prickly undercurrents keep reappearing, as on Citizen when a disembodied voice sings: “This is a day without a trace of reason… the innocent are bound to the damned.” Rarely have such brooding sentiments sounded so alluring. In summary, then: we’ll have what they’re having. --Johnny Sharp
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Product Description
JEWEL CASE EDITION : Debut 2010 team-up from James Mercer (The Shins) and Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley)!
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Why such mixed reviews? This is a MASTERPIECE; that sounds more impressive with every listen. Love the Shins, especially Wincing The Night Away but this album goes the extra mile. Mercer's voice is subtle yet distictive,the production is superb. Santagold-esque sounds in "The Ghost inside" one of the stand out tracks for me as is "Your Head Is On Fire", "Trap Doors" and the Mall & Misery". Like the Shins, stick with this album it is pure quality with a wonderful array of sounds and styles that leave you hooked.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
Being more or less unfamiliar to the prior works of the artists, I came to this album fresh.
I was pleasantly surprised to find a gently engaging collection of melodic songs. The album is deceptively complex. At first listen, it sounds nice enough, but repeat listenings reveal subtleties in the both the music and vocals.
I might have dismissed this as accessible, unchallenging indie, but there is more to this album than meets the eye (ear?).
Not one to love, but I like it plenty.
I was pleasantly surprised to find a gently engaging collection of melodic songs. The album is deceptively complex. At first listen, it sounds nice enough, but repeat listenings reveal subtleties in the both the music and vocals.
I might have dismissed this as accessible, unchallenging indie, but there is more to this album than meets the eye (ear?).
Not one to love, but I like it plenty.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
This album isn't something I would have picked out just browsing around, but the description caught my eye so I decided to give it a shot. In a way I'm glad I did, and while it's still not entirely to my tastes it also made me re-think some of the preconceptions I have about indie music.
If I had to classify it I'd place it somewhere between synth-pop and what most people would consider to be 'indie'. Production values are top notch and there are certainly some catchy tracks in there, particularly track 8. Personally I don't think it's a knock-out first album but it's still worth looking into if you think you like one or more of the genres it moves between.
4 stars, because while I might not be bowled over it is very well produced and I can see how others might like it.
If I had to classify it I'd place it somewhere between synth-pop and what most people would consider to be 'indie'. Production values are top notch and there are certainly some catchy tracks in there, particularly track 8. Personally I don't think it's a knock-out first album but it's still worth looking into if you think you like one or more of the genres it moves between.
4 stars, because while I might not be bowled over it is very well produced and I can see how others might like it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Mediocre
Quite dull, grey indie pop music, despite the presence of the (vastly overrated) Danger Mouse. The impression of diminishing returns from James Mercer is unavoidable: the first... Read more
Published 4 days ago by Ted Maul
Simply amazing.
Just as the title says, amazing, this album took me on a journey. I would happily sit and listen to James Mercer's voice all day.
Published 3 months ago by Tara H-H
£3.99 ?!
£3.99 is a extra large hot chocolate with cream. £3.99 is a small fast food meal? or £3.99 is an album you will keep coming back to possibly like me on Sunday mornings with heaps... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Automagicalness
Fantastic
The best album I've heard since Doves. Brilliant songwriting, gorgeous production. Can't wait for the next one from Broken Bells.
Published 6 months ago by Jonathan Keyte
Good but not great
A marriage made in heaven, when Dangermouse and the front man from The Shins got together? Kind of.. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mr. M. L. Hawes
An interesting diversion for Burton and Mercer
I was really looking forward to the release of the first album by Broken Bells, as I'm a huge fan of both James Mercer and Danger Mouse (Brian Burton). Read more
Published 15 months ago by Mr. Geek
THE album of 2010
I really don't understand the negative reviews - each to their own, and all that (as James Mercer sings on the impossibly good 'The High Road') but whatever your musical preference... Read more
Published 17 months ago by G. Horn
This album is very good, some people clearly don't get it.
I'm going to keep this brief.
This is an interesting album. It contains 9 songs which are about three and half minutes each. Read more
This is an interesting album. It contains 9 songs which are about three and half minutes each. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Harry Mitchell
Close your eyes and enjoy the Shins.
It's hard to listen to this album and regard it as anything else than a (rather good) Shins album. Dangermouse/Brian Burton's production lends itself well to Mercer's simple... Read more
Published 20 months ago by D. Macphee
Perhaps not quite reaching the heights of OMD in full flow - but a...
Broken Bells is an American rock music band based around Brian Burton and James Mercer. These two are the creative force in Broken Bells, although they are joined by a full band on... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Keith Joseph
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