Broken Bells Broken Bells

• "The High Road" – 3:54
• "Vaporize" – 3:32
• "Your Head Is On Fire" – 3:06
• "The Ghost Inside" – 3:19
• "Sailing To Nowhere" – 3:46
• "Trap Doors" – 3:19
• "Citizen" – 3:39
• "October" – 2:48
• "Mongrel Heart" – 4:26
• "The Mall and Misery" – 4:06

Broken Bells is principal Shins songwriter James Mercer and in-demand hip hop producer Danger Mouse, best known for his work in Gnarls Barkley, Danger Doom, and Gorillaz. The pair met at a concert a few years back. The friendship has since blossomed into a musical collaboration, with Danger Mouse producing three tracks for Wincing the Night Away, the Shins' surprise success of a third album. With both artists' respective day jobs currently on hiatus, they have decided that now is the time to spring their joint venture onto the masses. Broken Bells is an album-length collision between Mercer's wistful, pop classicist melodies and Danger Mouse's psych-rock influenced beats. Danger Mouse's warped, massive production gives Mercer's songs the same sprightly oomph that Beck got on his Mouse-assisted Modern Guilt. The pair promises that Broken Bells is no one-shot project. They're in it for the long run.

Abstract by Craig Jenkins