'Round these parts, the announcement of the
Broken Bells project - a collaboration between
James Mercer and
Danger Mouse - was met with a rather inquisitive, "huh?". On paper, the two appear unlikely bedfellows. They generally make the best kind, of course. But at the very least, a purveyor of earnest, vintage pop and his crazy, producer-minded counterpart sounds interesting...very, very interesting.
To date, the duo haven't made it entirely public what their self-titled debut will sound like when it gets released via Columbia on March 9th. But first single "The High Road" has shot around the web and back, and all signs point to a final product that sounds like the result of turning up the Shins, and dialing down the Gnarls.
This week the band revealed another piece of the album roll-out, releasing a rather fine video for the single. Not unlike
St Vincent's video for " Marrow", our heroes traverse a nocturnal road, encountering strange surreal scenes as they go along. Can't say I could ever picture Mercer having it out with a pajama-clad youngster, but he sort of gets his in the end. -
David Pitz
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Broken Bells on Myspace