Since March Madness started today I thought I would share my Final Four: West Virginia, Duke, Kansas, Kansas State. It was one of the best first days of the tourney that I can remember, alot of close games and overtimes. Exactly the reason why everybody loves this time of year!
But enough about sports, this is a music blog after all and I wish I had some witty tie in from basketball to today's album but it's late and I'm not feeling that creative. I do have some great tunes to share with you though and they come from one of my favorite musicians (James Mercer of The Shins) and one of my favorite producers (Brian Burton aka Danger Mouse). As is popular in today's music, this side project takes the best of both worlds from the music contributions of each artist. Mercer takes his catchy songwriting skills and brings it to Burton who drops the bright pop of The Shins and adds a dark tinge to the proceedings and encompasses all the songs in his trademark vintage sounding atmosphere. Burton, who revitalized Beck's career last year, forces Mercer expand his musical vocabulary, making him a more interesting artist to listen to. As you can imagine this mixture creates some great songs and this album is full of them. The lead single, The High Road, is a laid back tune with Mercer's familiar vocals crooning over some Burton played percussion and electronics during the chorus. The Mall and The Misery is another personal favorite, one of the few songs on here that has a true Shins like feel to it featuring strings in the beginning and then has fun with a psych-pop riff and Mercer's echoing vocals. However, the highlight for me is The Ghost Inside which is all Danger Mouse. The riff and beats are some of his staples and he has Mercer sing with a rare falsetto throughout which is catchy as hell.
Broken Bells make take a couple listens to sink in but once it does it will be stuck in your head for quite some time. I encourage you to try something a little different and check out this album.
Track Highlights: The High Road, Your Head is On Fire, The Ghost Inside, Mongrel Heart, The Mall and The Misery
http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Bells-Video/dp/B003B06Q40/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1268978817&sr=301-1
WEB SHERIFF
ReplyDeleteWho You Gonna Call
Tel 44-(0)208-323 8013
Fax 44-(0)208 323 8080
websheriff@websheriff.com
www.websheriff.com
Hi Brent,
On behalf of Columbia Records, Monotone and Broken Bells, many thanks for plugging "Broken Bells" / the artists' recently released eponymous album on your site ... thanks, also, on behalf of the label, management and artists for not posting any pirate links to unreleased (studio) material and, if you / your readers want good quality, non-pirated, preview tracks, then full length versions of "The High Road" and "Vaporize" are available for fans and bloggers to link to / post / host etc at www.brokenbells.com ... .. for further details of the new album, on-line promotions, videos and 2010 shows, check-out the official site, as well as the artists' MySpace at www.myspace.com/brokenbells and YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/brokenbells ... .. and keep an eye on these official sources for details of further news, preview material and on-line promotions.
Also and as a goodwill gesture to fans and bloggers, an exclusive preview stream of the full album is currently available via NPR as part of their ‘First Listen’ series at www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124018401 ... .. this is for hyper-linking ONLY and for streaming by fans directly off NPR, so please reciprocate this goodwill gesture by NOT ripping or embedding these files.
Thanks again for your plug.
Regards,
WEB SHERIFF