The Record Crate

By now you can probably tell that we’re absolute rubbish at coming up with award titles. Sorry we’re not sorry. Awards like “Breakthrough Artist 2010” just aren’t in our color wheel. However, if we were to equate this award with something you would find on a normal awards ballot, consider this to be the our “Breakthrough” award. Ladies and gentlemen, Broken Bells!

When we first got wind of a Danger Mouse collab with The Shins’ James Mercer, nothing seemed to make more sense. Think about it, their respective music circles yield such drastically different products yet at the same time, it’s almost like their circles are one in the same. Prior to hearing the music, one might have wondered if this was going to be another Shins album with samples and beats under it. Then when the album dropped (or leaked as some might point out), there wasn’t much that resembled anything the Shins did in the past. But where does Danger Mouse fit into everything? He plays the drums? What? 

Seeing them live is a completely different story. There’s six dudes on stage, Mercer taking center stage, Danger Mouse playing drums, guitar AND keys and the music sounds even better! I have had this album in rotation on and off since I got my hands on a digital copy and haven’t looked back since. If you haven’t yet gotten into these guys (which, may I add, is blasphemy) you need to. Pronto. Congrats Broken Bells, you’ve just been made CERTIFIED GOLD.