Yeah, You Got Me Wrong

I finally got around to really listening to the Broken Bells' album, featuring Danger Mouse and James Mercer.  I'm a big fan of both The Shins and Gnarls Barkley, and my first listen through this back in March kind of left me cold.  It was alright, but there didn't seem to be much to hook me. 

Like the collaboration between Timbaland -- trying to make a rock album -- and Chris Cornell -- trying not to make a rock album -- it seemed like the things that made the individual acts special was missing.  One of the things that I liked about Danger Mouse was the incredible beats and electronic flourishes, while sampling some 60's pop, in Gnarls Barkley and on Beck's Modern Guilt - the choice to primarily use live instruments makes that largely absent here.  What I love about The Shins is the jangly pop, with Mercer's rather endearing high register whine-sing, although I suppose the Smiths-ish influence to Wincing the Night Away might point to the approach to this album.  In any event, the lack of the two things that I loved about the separate groups had me largely shelve the Broken Bells album after a couple of listens.

In the wee hours of the morning today, I decided to give it a spin again as background music.  Like many albums that have grown on me over time, I found it worked considerably better when I wasn't thinking about it.  Especially the second half of the album, which settles into a nice laid back groove.  That groove, in a way, is very similar to some of the more acoustic beats from the Gorillaz' Demon Days and the musical backbone of the Gnarls Barkley tracks.  There's also an odd old-school pop feel to some of the music, almost like something out of a David Lynch film, that adds a different flavour to some of the tracks.

Stand out tracks to me include; "The Ghost Inside" --which I think has the most similarity in terms of bass beat to a Gnarls Barkley song, although it's fronted by Mercer singing falsetto--, "October" -- which features a great opening of guitar and piano, as well as some of the best lyrics on the album--, and "Mongrel Heart" --which highlights a great 70's disco groove as well as a refrain featuring Morricone-esque trumpet work.