Broken Bells [+Video]

This album is a great find! Every song on the album is awesome. I can let the whole album play through and enjoy every minute of it. If you love The Shins...I think you will love this. The collaboration with Danger Mouse makes this one of the best albums I have bought in a LONG time. RECOMMEND!!

Just a good "put it on and forget about life" album. Very upbeat showing by Broken Bells. This has quickly become the background noise while I'm at work and/or out with friends. Not too in your face, but never out of your head.

A bit early to be saying album of 2010 when I'm reviewing in July of that year. I hope I'm wrong, because that would mean there is another album out there EVEN BETTER than this one. Great! But, in lieu of this phantom album landing in my lap before 31 December, here are reasons to buy this album right now -

in fact, stop reading my review and go buy it, why are you still reading? -

OK - if you insist - four reasons only:-

1. Awesome voice. Rendered more awesome than when James Mercer plays in his band, the Shins - more raw, more on edge, more emotional, more in your heart.
2. Wonderful songwriting. Powerful. Resonant. Built around one man and his guitar. Rock and roll, nothing more complicated than that.
3. Amazing production. So the songs work, and I'm sure they sound good acoustic. But this is album of the year we're talking about. The moment the first song "The High Road" kicks off with its weird synthesiser spiral, you know you're on a journey, it's going to go far, you're going to have pay attention - and you'll want to.
4. Smart as a Masters degree, but not an ounce of pretentiousness. These are two of the smarter people on the scene writing and performing music. Everything feels that little bit more thought through and composed (in both senses). Yet you can just kick back and call this a summer album and never recall a single lyric.

Reasons up. Go listen!

To be honest, I hesitated with buying this record for about a month. 30 second clips sometimes are not enough to decide what's good and what's not. So since the $5 special with this album was only good for this month, I borrowed the record from a friend and gave it a whirl. With a few listens and a bunch of good reviews from other people I took the plunge (cause $5 is a lot to lose?). Let me say: Broken Bells has a bright future ahead of them. I'm finding something new in these tracks every time through. What's $5? Take the plunge!

Really great album with all the joy and creativity of the Shins and The Gorillaz. Playable all the way through, perfect for just relaxing. Classic Indie.