Broken Bells is the new project of Danger Mouse (of The Grey Album and Gnarls Barkley fame) and James Mercer (the vocalist of The Shins). The two 00s pop heavyweights became friends when they met at the 2004 Roskilde festival in Denmark, and have since been working on plans to record some music together. These plans resulted in the project Broken Bells, who after a long waiting time are finally blessing the world with their debut album next month.
Danger Mouse and Mercer both have a rare talent for creating incredibly catchy pop songs – who has never been addicted to Crazy or New Slang? – and the first two Broken Bells track I've heard so far indicate that they have managed to very successfully put their creative talents together. Danger Mouse has already proven himself as a fantastic producer for alternative rock with the job he did on Beck's Modern Guilt (2008), so I'm very glad he and Mercer found each other. I've marked March 9 in my calender, and am looking forward to the album's release with great anticipation!
Listen to the full length versions of the first two tracks from the album, "The High Road" and "Vaporize", over at Broken Bell's official homepage.
