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Vinyl giveaway details at the end of the review.
Broken Bells
Broken Bells
Columbia Records
out March 9th
85/100
[Rating Scale]

Rate Broken Bells

There will be lots of reviews that compare Broken Bells, Danger Mouse’s project with The Shins’ James Mercer, to Gnarls Barkely, his project with Cee-Lo Green. Let’s get this out of the way early: both Broken Bells and Gnarls Barkley pair Danger Mouse with an iconic singer, and both bands have two-word names. That’s it. The similarities end there. This is a completely different animal.

There are, however, facile comparisons to Mercer’s earlier work. Eyes closed, this is a Shins album. There’s no use pretending that Broken Bells is a larger experimental step away from Wincing The Night Away than that record was from its predecessor, Chutes Too Narrow. Or than Chutes was from debut Oh, Inverted World. On each successive album, The Shins morphed and grew, managing to strike the same chord with fans despite playing in different keys. In that vein – and because The Shins are so closely tied to Mercer’s voice and vice versa – the line between that band and Broken Bells is a blurry one at best.

Which isn’t – to be clear – a knock against the album. At all. A quality album from one of the most successful indie musicians in the past decade is nothing at all to sneer at. Nor is it a knock against Danger Mouse – billed here under his given name, Brian Burton. Although Burton’s contributions are less immediately identifiable here than on previous collaborations, that may well serve as a testament to his adaptability. He has seamlessly integrated himself into a sonic world that is heavy on melody and light on beats, donning a new hat before you even noticed that he took off the old one. (more…)

Broken Bells, the musical love child of Gnarls Barkley’s Danger Mouse (aka Brian Burton) and The Shins’ James Mercer, will be going on a short US tour to promote the release of their self-titled debut album. They will be stopping by New York’s Music Hall of Williamsburg on March 10th. We will be giving away a pair of tickets to a lucky reader, and a copy of the duo’s debut record on vinyl and the nifty Shins concert poster you see on your left to another reader. This 13″ x 26″ poster is from the Shins’ May 22, 2004 show in Portland with The Fiery Furnaces and Elf Power. It is signed and numbered and designed by Mike King.

To Enter leave a comment with your name and email address (in the appropriate fields) and your favorite Shins song. Also, make sure you let us know what you’re entering for (tickets, poster/LP, both).

This contest ends Wednesday, March 10th at NOON EST.

Download Broken Bells’ first single “The High Road” for free below:

 Broken Bells "The High Road": Play NowDownload (4066)

Broken Bells’ debut album is out Tuesday, March 9th. Pre-order it at Insound.

The video for the new James Mercer (The Shins) and Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley) collaboration, Broken Bells. Broken Bells’ self-titled, full-length debut is out March 9th on Sony. Download the track here.

Photo by Kevin Cooley

Last week the PMACAST celebrated its twenty-fifth installment on its one year anniversary — yet no one wished us a Happy Birthday! What rude listeners we have.

Anyway, moving on to the twenty-sixth episode, we are looking at 2010′s first quarter in music releases. I’ve assembled a 17-song playlist that will hopefully give you a nice taste of the album’s we’ve liked that will be released in Twenty-Ten. Download the mp3 below, find the tracklist after the jump.

PS:Subscribe to the pmaCAST via iTunesor RSS feed to stay up-to-date on the newest episode updates!

 MP3: PMACAST No.026: Play NowDownload (2491)

 M4A: PMACAST No.026 (w/ Chapters): Download

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