After witnessing Gnarls Barkley’s playful pop-cultural press-shot roll-out and Dark Night Of The Soul’s rogue poster campaign, you couldn’t have been surprised to find Danger Mouse’s latest collab follow a similarly stealthy route. After all the sleuthing, though, we were left only with Broken Bells instrumental snippets; today James Mercer’s tender vocal bits come into focus. The grooved, acoustically rooted “The High Road” is the first full single from Mercer Mouse’s forthcoming LP, not so much a stretch on James’s stylings as a reframing: arcade game keyboard bloops strewn atop straight-up strums and Dangerous, mid-tempo bass, piano, backing vocals, etc. (Album instrumental credits: Mercer on vocals, guitars, bass; Burton on organ, drums, piano, synths and bass). Have a listen:
If you’re interested in a download, prepare your email address and enter it at brokenbells.com. (Previously, James and Danger joined forces on “Insane Lullaby” from DNOTS.)
Broken Bells is out 3/9 via Columbia. There are all sorts of pre-order options here. As for James’s other life-changing project … stay tuned.
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Somewhere between Sea Legs and Shuggie…Love Shuggie…
That’s terrible.
Oh, get your head out of the gutter…I meant what I meant…
very apt description. I’m much more interested in this album now.
Really boring…
or incredibly chill… but most of stereogum’s adherents don’t have the patience for mid-tempo/downtempo. My expectations for this project were pretty low, but this is promising
I can’t wait…should be an interesting collaboration. this should fix mercer’s drummer problems.
Cool
I reckon it’ll be a grower.
anyone else think this might be the worst of 2k10?
zzz…
Should have kept with the name theme and gone with Cult Rambis or Dijon Stockton.
Hearing James Mercer’s voice just makes me crave some new Shins!! Sorry DM.
Does anyone else get a slight Sufjan vibe? I think it’s a pretty decent song.
Hmm… a perfectly serviceable, unoffensive, slightly catchy song that is completely boring, and I won’t remember two months from now – just what I’ve thought of every Shins song since Freshman year in college.
Let me guess, you are a big fan of Girls? I’m not surprised.
I do have to say, also, that dude’s Taco Truck is more fulfilling than anything the Shins have done in the past five years, but unfortunately as of today, tacos are still not purchasable via iTunes and Portland is four hours away.
i dig it. i feel the modern sound with some classic 70’s incorporated in with it. Love the Sound.
i dig it. i feel the modern sound with some classic 70’s incorporated in with it. Love the Sound.
I like it. The ending hook is the best part. I wish they would have milked that more
throughout. “It’s too late to change your mind, You let laws/loss (?) be your god.”
like the beat, not the rest
seems like something i’ll try to like and forget about fast
Well you’re certainly setting yourself up for that.
You can’t argue with what sticks in a way…I’ve been waking up with the chorus(also bloopy intro) in my head the past few days…
I love it! nothing else really sounds like this…..except maybe Danger Mouse & James Mercer.
Can’t wait for the album.
Got the album…Holy Shit!
Best album I’ve heard in a long time, this is a definite Classic!!!
songwriting on this shit is off the charts.
wow, it just get’s better everytime I hear it.
Ya know, James Mercer looks more and more like a younger Kevin Spacey every time I look at him.
This isn’t good.
I agree. Awful.
I got the album too, meh. I love James Mercer and DM, but they’ve both made much better albums than this. I think they just make for an odd pairing, aside from the High Road and maybe one or two other songs, DM just doesn’t know how to bring out the dynamics in Mercer’s songs. It’s a shame, because I was really looking forward to this.
Unless you really want to like this album, you won’t. And no, the best albums are not like that.
Awesome first single – can’t wait to hear more from these guys over the next few weeks. The pre-sale up on the band’s site looks really cool, too.
brilliant! this song brought tears to my eyes! i instantly fell head over heals in love with this. mercer and danger mouse are so talented and influintial. def in the ring of the most talented artists of this generation! theyre the bees knees! bomb diggity!!!!!!!!