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SXSW review: Broken Bells
There’s something a little odd about how Broken Bells manages to work far better than you might expect and yet still manages to be a little disappointing.
It’s not hard to imagine the collaboration between mercurial artist-producer Danger Mouse — credited with Broken Bells under real name Brian Burton — and Shins front man James Mercer as a disjointed Frankenstein, a peculiar hybird of the hip-hop, indie folk and electronica worlds. The potential’s there for a fascinating train wreck.
Broken Bells, unsurprisingly given Burton and Mercer’s talent, is decidedly not a train wreck. But nor is it the fascinating hip-hop/indie hybrid you may have hoped for. Instead, it’s an intermittently catchy project, indie rock with just a dash of electronica, imminently accessible and pleasant but largely forgettable. That’s the case live, too.
As Mercer took to the stage at Stubb’s Wednesday night, with Danger Mouse sitting in on drums, backed by appropriately monochromatic visual projections he launched into lead single and self-titled debut album highlight “The High Road.” That’s one of the strongest singles so far this year, a chill four minutes of pop perfection with an easygoing appeal. The band remained tight as they took on the remainder of the songs off “Broken Bells,” from the groove of “Vaporize” to the closer of “The Mail and Misery.” But the performance felt just a bit too studied, a bit too clinical. It was when Mercer stepped furthest outside his comfort zone — from the guitar freakout of “Mongrel Heart” to the sexy, mellow charm of “The Ghost Inside” or the vaguely sinister sound and bone-rattling bass of “Sailing to Nowhere” — that Broken Bells most intrigued.
But too often — as on the ballad-esque “Citizen” or the sunny pop of “October” — Mercer was just a bit too close to Shins mode, lacking that extra Danger Mouse verve and sounding disengaged if musically astute. Although rife with nice moments — dig the trumpet on “Mongrel Heart” — Broken Bells, if they’re to punch up the live show, might have to drag Mercer just a bit more forcefully into a more challenging sound. Mercer’s described their sound as “experimental” in Rolling Stone in January, and perhaps that gets to the root of the problem. All told, Broken Bells could stand to be a bit more experimental.
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