Broken Bells

Bummed that Spotify doesn’t have their newer album.  Come on, folks.  It is pure and simple communism to refuse to give me all music at all times for completely free.

All they have is the 2010 album (Broken Bells), which is good.  This is a great mix of two awesome things – Danger Mouse doing the production/music (who did two excellent projects in Beck’s Modern Guilt and the Grey Album mash-up of the Beatles’ White Album and Jay-Z’s Black Album) and James Mercer, the lead singer from the Shins.  I love the Shins – I think anyone who ever watched Garden State ought to have a fond attachment to them:

(although watching this scene again makes me think how creepy it is to hand someone your headphones and then watch them listen to your favorite song that will purportedly change their life).  I loved that soundtrack more than most because that soundtrack was the only disc I had in my home player when we moved back to Austin, so I have a lot of great memories of listening to Caring is Creepy and New Slang while painting our first nursery or putting together furniture for our first house.  I also loved their cover of The Postal Service’s Such Great Heights – such a great song.  Anyway, that is not this band.  I am talking too much about not this band. 

This band has much more electronics and tight little beats than the Shins, although Mercer is still excellent.  Top tracks are The Ghost Inside:

and the High Road:

If you listen to KUTX, then you will have heard these songs repeatedly.  The album has just enough groove to be danceable/funky, but with the same kind of confessional lyrics that make the Shins interesting.  I like this album.  Now, whether or not to devote time to see them at ACL?  Not entirely sold, but yeah, I think I would give them a shot.