Broken Bells - Albums Collection 2010-2014 (3CD)

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Broken Bells - Albums Collection 2010-2014 (3CD)

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Though Broken Bells featured two of the bigger names in indie and alternative music – the Shins' singer/guitarist James Mercer and producer/multi-instrumentalist Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse – the duo managed to keep their project secret for a relatively long time. The pair were inspired to collaborate when they met at 2004's Roskilde music festival in Denmark, where they discovered they were fans of each other's work. However, they didn't start writing and recording together as a band until March 2008, when Mercer holed up in Burton's home studio in Los Angeles. The duo took a different approach to their work together than they had with their other projects: Burton avoided the sample-heavy style he used on The Grey Album and Beck's Modern Guilt, and played only live instruments, while Mercer broadened his vocal style to include falsettos and deeper registers. Mercer and Burton announced they were Broken Bells in fall 2009, and late that year they released their debut single, "The High Road." Their self-titled debut album arrived in spring 2010. A year later, the Meyrin Fields EP arrived, featuring previously unreleased tracks as well as the title track, which had been the B-side to the single The Ghost Inside. In late 2013 the duo released a teaser for a forthcoming second album, entitled After the Disco, in the shape of a retro-futurist short film starring Anton Yelchin and Kate Mara. The album was preceded by the singles "After the Disco" and "Holding on for Life," which had an old-school, psychedelic '70s feel, right down to the production, with the latter track sounding uncannily like the Bee Gees. After the Disco arrived in February 2014.

Heather Phares, Allmusic.com

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Broken Bells - Albums Collection 2010-2014 (3CD)

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Broken Bells - Albums Collection 2010-2014 (3CD)

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James Mercer and Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton) want their project Broken Bells to be seen, and heard, as an honest-to-goodness band, not a side-project dalliance. It's a little tricky to do that when first listening to their self-titled debut album, since they're such well-known and distinctive talents: Mercer crafted singularly bittersweet indie pop with the Shins, while Burton brought the Beatles and Jay-Z together on The Grey Album and went on to shape sounds for equally omnivorous artists like Beck and Gorillaz. Mercer's songwriting skills and Danger Mouse's production mastery sound like a potent combo, and they are, when the pair balances its ambitions and respective strengths. They work hard – maybe too hard – at avoiding their previous sounds. Mercer's vocals and melodies will almost certainly evoke the Shins to some degree or another, but he and Burton steer clear of the bright pop that countered that band's gloomier moments in favor of winding melodies and mellow atmospheres. While these songs don't feel as confessional as Mercer's work with his other band, they strive for an intimacy that the lush production and arrangements tend to distance. At times, this makes for intriguing contrasts: “Citizen” presents its small melody in lavish surroundings – it’s hazy bedroom pop, if that bedroom were in a five-star hotel with 1000-thread-count sheets. Too often, though, Broken Bells’ songs aren’t as compelling as the trappings around them, though touches like “October”’s wah-wah piano and “Your Head Is on Fire”’s zero-gravity synths are enjoyable in their own right. When Burton and Mercer get their styles to really mix, instead of just share the same space, they live up to their potential. “The High Road” melds slick electronic percussion and a searching, minor-key melody into something that echoes the duo’s previous work without rehashing it. “The Ghost Inside” is especially exciting, pushing Mercer outside of his comfort zone by pairing his falsetto with wobbly keyboards and strings. Toward the end, Broken Bells break out of their meandering with “Mongrel Heart” and “The Mall & the Misery,” which, after a lengthy expanse of strings and horns, closes the album with some crisp chamber pop. Somewhat surprisingly, Broken Bells is an honest-to-goodness debut album – there are as many promising flashes as frustrating moments here. Mercer and Burton have obvious chemistry, but they need to blend more for true alchemy.

Heather Phares, Allmusic.com

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Broken Bells - Albums Collection 2010-2014 (3CD)

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When a producer as prolific as Danger Mouse and a songwriter as multifaceted as James Mercer get together, there are bound to be some bizarre studio concoctions. While their self-titled debut album as Broken Bells was promising, it occasionally felt like the duo was holding itself in check. Meyrin Fields, however, unleashes the more psychedelic side of the band's talents with songs that are less subdued and studied, and more fanciful and energetic. The EP is bookended by its two most fully realized songs. Though the moody title track was originally released as a B-side to "The Ghost Inside," it's a shame "Meyrin Fields" didn't appear on Broken Bells: Mercer warns, "It's coming, wait for it" over electronic squiggles and an oddly menacing bassline that has more weight and momentum than all the songs on Broken Bells' debut combined. This song and "Heartless Empire," which pairs the weirder side of Mercer's brainy, melancholy pop with intergalactic production by Mr. Mouse, show just how well they complement each other when they're firing on all cylinders. While the surfy "Windows" and the instrumental "An Easy Life" – which recalls Danger Mouse's previous collaborators, Gorillaz – aren't quite as full-fledged as the EP's other songs, they still show how dynamic Broken Bells' balance of solid hooks and sonic flights of fancy can be. In many ways, this glimpse at the strange underbelly of Mercer and Mouse's music is more exciting than Broken Bells was; at the very least, it shows that there's more life and creativity in this project than just the one album. Meyrin Fields may be under 12 minutes long, but it's still a musical goodie bag that sounds like it was as much fun to make as it is to hear.

Heather Phares, Allmusic.com

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Broken Bells - Albums Collection 2010-2014 (3CD)

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At times, Broken Bells' self-titled debut was so hazy that it felt like it was about to dissipate in a cloud of wry West Coast melancholy, but on After the Disco, James Mercer and Brian Burton give that atmosphere a little more form. Building on previous highlights like "The Ghost Inside" and "The High Road," the pair dive deeper into their synth pop, new wave, and disco fascinations to soundtrack songs that, as the album title suggests, are filled with comedowns and disappointments. Former single and standout track "Holding on for Life" uses its slow-motion disco beat and eerie keyboards to underscore the emptiness lurking in lyrics like "what a lovely day to be lonely," cultivating a mood that falls somewhere between desperate and glamorous. As always in Broken Bells' world, there's a fine line between bittersweet and bummed out; while these aren't the easiest moods to make appealing, Burton and Mercer succeed when they bring some energy to the proceedings. "Medicine" bolsters its contemplative sighs with spiky, percussive pop that recalls Gotye, while "No Matter What You're Told" gives some brassy bite to its blasé cynicism. Here and on songs like "Lazy Wonderland," which sells the merits of watching the wheels go round and round with some alluring major-minor chord changes, After the Disco feels like a much more organic and satisfying blend of Mercer and Burton's respective strengths than Broken Bells did. However, the duo still sometimes border on being too tasteful, and much of the album's pleasure comes from appreciating flourishes like the flute-like keys on "Leave It Alone" and the update of smoky '70s soft rock on "The Angel and the Fool" rather than the songs' actual sentiments; even the title of the closing track, "The Remains of Rock & Roll," suggests that passion doesn't have much of a place here. Given Burton and Mercer's pedigrees, it's hard not to want more from Broken Bells, but After the Disco's strongest moments suggest that their music is coming into focus.

Heather Phares, Allmusic.com