CD Odyssey Disc 1059: Broken Bells

Some days you wake up ready to face any challenge, overcome any obstacle and conquer the world. I’d like to say today was one of those days, but I just felt a little tired.

Disc 1059 is…After the Disco

Artist: Broken Bells

Year of Release: 2013

What’s up with the Cover? A woman basks in the pink light of the geometric shape from the cover of the first Broken Bells album (reviewed back at Disc 462), while all around her the cosmos flows. Ordinarily, I’d warn her to put on that helmet if she is going out in zero gravity, but I doubt that just the helmet is going get the job done.

How I Came To Know It: Sheila bought the first Broken Bells album, and knowing she liked them, I might’ve bought her this one as a birthday or Christmas gift, but I can't be sure. The answer is lost in the mists of time and the hundreds of albums that have caught my fancy since then.

How It Stacks Up:  We have two Broken Bells CDs, and of the two I’ll put “After the Disco” in second.

Ratings: 3 stars

I tend toward rock music or folk music, and the artificiality of synthetic pop is just not my thing, but Broken Bells knows how to do that sound so well I ended up liking “After the Disco” despite my biases.

It helps that James Mercer just knows how to write a catchy hook (he’s done it for years in the Shins). Add in Danger Mouse’s talent at production, and the result is some very catchy pop songs. Mercer has a high, sonorous indie folk vocal, and it keeps things dressed down enough to balance out all the beeps, thumps and bass-riffs that Danger Mouse likes to groove on.

On my last Broken Bells review I mentioned the disco-like energy that Danger Mouse and James Mercer infused into the album. Given this album’s title and musical focus, I can only assume they are devoted readers of my blog. Welcome, gentlemen, to our club of dozens!

On many of the tracks it feels like Mercer is channeling Barry Gibb, and I liked it. When Mercer sings the chorus of “Holding On For Life” it feels like he’s trying to make it on the soundtrack for a Saturday Night Fever remake, maybe set on some far flung futuristic world. The title track in particular was a heavy dose of groove, science fiction and a whole lot of fun.

While “After the Disco” was the ‘danciest” of the album’s eleven tracks, the whole thing made me bob my head and look for a dance floor and a disco ball. Regrettably, for the first half I was on the bus and was stuck in a seat with very limited legroom, and for the second half I was walking home, so it didn’t end up being quite as celebratory as it felt in my head.

After a while, all those catchy beats made it hard for me to focus on what Broken Bells was singing about, although the opening track, “Perfect World” had a line that resonated, as Mercer expresses the desire for a little less stress and a little more oblivion:

“I was hoping for

An easy rambling life

Till the notion came to my mind

“We look for exit signs

But we can’t be changed

Into nothing overnight.”

A quick look at the liner notes revealed a lot of other songs with thoughtful lyrics as well, with a focus on people hurting and trying to party through the pain, even as their choices just hollow them out further. the album is aptly named, evoking that tension headache you get when you stayed up too late in an effort to have more fun, even though at some point in the wee small hours you started having less.

Ultimately, as good as it was, I couldn’t get past all that head-bobbing dance music. I get that it is supposed to juxtapose against Mercer’s lyrics, but at times it drowns them out completely. Or maybe it just takes a lot of repeat listens to let it sink in. I suspect it is a bit of both.

The musical influences are interesting, with the ghosts of both the Beatles and the Cure jostling with Sade and the Bee Gees. If you are a devotee of club music but wished it was a bit more self-examined, this is the album for you.

Overall, “After the Disco” is an ambitious record both musically and thematically, and I admired the effort. I enjoyed the music as well, even though it rarely reached down and grabbed me by the heart like I wanted it to.

Best tracks: Perfect World, After the Disco, Holding on For Life, Medicine

CD Odyssey Disc 462: Broken Bells

I’m feeling very much in the holiday spirit this week, by which I mean I’d like the holiday season to begin.

I could have reviewed this album yesterday, but I wanted to get a couple listens under my belt.  I hear this album a fair bit in the house (it is a Sheila mainstay) but it is often on shuffle with other music and I wanted to grok it in its fullness as a complete album instead.

Disc 462 is… Broken Bells (Self-Titled) 

Artist: Broken Bells

Year of Release: 2010

What’s up with the Cover?  I have no idea.  Some sort of pink geometric shape, or maybe a microscopic space ship flying through Inner Space (hence the open port in the top left).  It also reminds me of a paper lantern without a proper candle.

How I Came To Know It:  Sheila is a big Shins fan, and I believe she got wind of this spin off project of James Mercer teaming up with Danger Mouse.  I think she heard it on the radio, of all places.

How It Stacks Up:  This is the only Broken Bells album.  In terms of Mercer’s other work, it holds its own with his Shins catalogue, which is saying something.

Rating:  4 stars

Over the weekend I went to my first after-hours party in a while.  Despite good company, I didn’t stay long and the biggest reason was I simply couldn’t figure out how to dance to the music the kids are playing these days (dubstep?).  Those who like it must have their reasons, but for me it just doesn’t have any dynamics or melody to get my limbs moving.  Every time I thought it was about to launch into something interesting it would just subside into that slow, directionless beat forcing me to shuffle along, rather than cut a rug.

Music by James Mercer does not suffer from this lack of direction.  He always has beautiful melodies, although his work with the Shins trends toward the folksy side of pop.  That is where collaborator Danger Mouse comes in on “Broken Bells” giving Mercer’s melodies a nice hip hop groove that infuses them with a disco-like energy.

The result sounds like a cross-breeding of the Shins with the Gorillaz.  This is not surprising given that Danger Mouse also produced my favourite Gorillaz album (2005’s “Demon Days” reviewed way back at Disc 138).

Often drawn in by the Shins haunting lyrics, with Broken Bells I found myself rarely trying to pay attention to the words of the songs.  Even when I lent an effort to doing so, searching for something good to quote for the blog, I was quickly led off of my intent and back to just listening to Mercer’s voice as another instrument, carrying melody over top of the natural groove of the song.

This is not a complaint, either.  This is one smooth record.  In addition to great songwriting, it makes very judicious production and arrangement decisions throughout.  Backup vocals often come in mid-bar, sometimes supporting the chorus, sometimes just a mood-establishing hum.  Danger Mouse knows when a piano is called for, when to go with guitar and when to go full electronica.  In every case the mix is a delicious soup of sound.

The album's opening track, "The High Road," begins with a jazz odyssey on what I think is the organ, but that quickly bounces into one of Mercer’s effortless melodies before too much harm is caused.  Danger Mouse wraps the production around Mercer’s genius like a blanket, shielding out the cold disconnect sometimes present in Shins songs.

“The Ghost Inside” has Mercer’s falsetto on full display, and with its urgent groove and synth-organ riff this song was that most uncommon thing; a radio hit that deserves to be as popular as it is.

Despite “Ghost Inside’s” success it is the album as a whole that casts a larger spell than any individual track.  There is a natural and consistent flow that draws you in, and before you know it it’s over and you’re back to track one pressing replay, wondering where one song ended and another began.  The singles stand out less, principally because of the solidly high standard of the music throughout.  Does it lack a small bit of range as a result?  Yes, but if there were more peaks and valleys it would actually detract from the mood it establishes.  Note to techno: this is proof that you can have this effect and not be boring in the process.

It is no accident that “Broken Bells” only has ten songs, none of which are over four and a half minutes.  In 2010 this type of studio restraint is admirable.  A record is like any work of art; it should be only as complex as it needs to be to tell its story and no longer.  Broken Bells gets this formula right.  I wish more artists were equally judicious in their song choices.

I feel like a lot of what Mercer learned from this record went into the new Shins album “Port of Morrow” and I’m glad that it did.  “Broken Bells” proves that there is still good pop music being made that is both danceable and intelligently composed.  Occasionally, this good music even bubbles up onto mainstream radio. 

Best tracks:  The High Road, Your Head is On Fire, The Ghost Inside, Trap Doors, The Mall and Misery