Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Case File #31: "The Mall and Misery"


Broken Bells
"The Mall and Misery"
Broken Bells
(2010)





The need to know: Broken Bells combines the superpowers of The Shins' James "You gotta hear this song. It'll change your life." Mercer and multi-instrumentalist/producer Brian Burton, who you may know better as Danger Mouse--half of Gnarles Barkley, producer of Gorillaz's sophomore effort Demon Days and mastermind behind The Grey Album, his controversial mash-up of Jay-Z's Black Album and The Beatles' White Album.  The duo met and discussed a collabo in 2004 at the Roskilde festival, but they wouldn't really put the gears in motion until four years later--AND it was miraculously largely kept secret until their debut single "The High Road" emerged in 2009. If you're thinking a match up between folks with that kind of musical background would have to be awesome, then you're definitely on the ball.

Why it's worthy: A standout track on an album with many standout tracks, "The Mall and Misery" closes out Broken Bells' eponymous debut with a danceable amalgamation of layered vocals, Shins-ian verses and a modern-life-is-rubbish ideology. In short, it's the best both halves can offer the whole and done to perfection.

Quotable lyric: "I know what I know/ Would not fill a thimble/ So let your mind go"

Where you've heard it: If you're my neighbors? Through the walls a lot last Friday night.

Get obsessed:

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