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July 30, 2010

Ear Shot: Broken Bells "Broken Bells"

The Herald Bulletin

Broken Bells

Broken Bells

Columbia Records

Rating: *** (of 4)

Have you had enough of Gnarls Barkley but still like the sound? Broken Bells is the collaboration between Gnarls’ Danger Mouse (the very hip producer Brian Burton) and The Shins’ James Mercer. The disc has been out since March but Broken Bells is getting a fair share of TV appearances and is keeping its video output alive via brokenbells.com. The effort pumps deeper, dreamier ethereal drifts to Shins’ (let’s be honest) rather pedestrian vocal-heavy pop.

Instead, lounge cool rhythms dominate the often undecipherable lyrics about depression and life passing us by (the mental anguish is like a shadow, you see). “The High Road” sets us on a gentle journey into darkness, followed by the strolling “Vaporize” and the trippy “Your Head is On Fire.” The music is so enveloping that we can gloss over dismal moods, that is, until the disc’s centerpiece, “The Ghost Inside, “ a Gnarls-ish shape-shifting beat that winks with romanticism, “Don’t turn into one of them/Turning another page/Trust me darlin’/I’m carving a moat through the dust in your town/ Crawling over rubble/ Just to serve ya.” Broken Bells’ questions over the misery of life linger too long. So it’s best to get caught up in the swirling sounds of numbing relaxation than the twisting black hole of Broken Bells’ lyrical despair.

— Reviewed by staff writer Scott L. Miley, The Herald Bulletin

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