On the surface it sounds like an absolute dream collaboration to kick off a brand new decade — take the best pop songwriter and the best hip hop producer of the ’00s, and let them sort out what’s likely to be a candidate for several year-end accolades. That’s what a lot of people surely had in mind when The Shins’s James Mercer and Brian Burton, better known as Danger Mouse, got together to form Broken Bells. And while their self-titled debut is more than just worth a listen, it doesn’t quite reach the lofty heights that their names would suggest.
The album features typically genre-mashing stuff from Danger Mouse but, interestingly, this is Mercer’s most literal songwriting to date. There isn’t a ton to decipher here, and meticulous wordplay is hardly the album’s calling card. Lead single and opening track “The High Road” is by far the album’s highlight, and is the best representation of what people thought this duo might produce. The rest of the album just sounds like The Shins with a really good producer. It’s almost a shame to sum it up so bluntly.
The prolific nature of both of these artists is certainly a blessing for music fans, but if Broken Bells is given just a little more time to marinate, the results could be extraordinary.
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