Broken Bells: self-titled

James Mercer and Brian Burton ... sounds like a boring combination unless you're aware that Mercer is the lead singer from The Shins, while Burton is better known by his DJ name, Danger Mouse.  It seems an odd pairing at the outset, seeing as how The Shins are largely unplugged (aside from the occasional electric guitar), and Danger Mouse is, well, almost exclusively plugged.  But hey, if The Black Keys and Mos Def can hook up (and also RZA), then why not Mercer and Burton?

Pretty much everything Danger Mouse has ever touched has turned to gold.  The dude is a digital King Midas.  Gold, gold, gold, gold, gold, gold (some in terms of sales; all in terms of sound).  Danger didn't change his tune for Broken Bells' self-titled debut.

The duo of Mercer and Burton hooked up in 2009 to record for Dark Night of the Soul, a project helmed by Sparklehorse (produced by Burton), and produced my favorite track from the album.  The sound reproduced itself for the Broken Bells album, but less glitchy, less experimental; more tuneful, more poppy.  I'm not complaining though; tuneful and poppy are fine by me if they are done well... and Mercer and Burton do it well.  However, if tuneful and poppy are the themes for the album, then it simply sounds like Burton put electronic beats/sounds behind The Shins.  I wouldn't have minded it if they had branched out a bit on a few tracks.  This one, however, is fantastic:



Grade: B+
Blurb: It lives up to its billing.  The question now becomes, who couldn't Danger Mouse work with?

Joe Pug: Messenger

Joe Pug's 2008 EP Nation of Heat was outstanding, front to back; 2010's Messenger is anything but.  I should have been concerned when, last year, Mr. Pug gave away his In the Meantime EP for free.  Don't get me wrong, it wasn't the "free" part that concerned me -- it was the fact that there were no really good songs on it.  In fact, I didn't care much for that EP at all, but I brushed it off, thinking that maybe those were all the songs not good enough to make Nation of Heat.  Untrue.

The biggest difference between Heat and Messenger is that almost every song on Heat has a set of lyrical spiral steps, winding in various directions.  The music is great, but it's just a dude strumming a guitar, so it's the lyrics that shine.  Each song had its own story, its own bit of mystery.  Messenger lacks mystery.  Messenger also feels "bigger" -- which is not, as they say, always better.  His backing band shines on the redux of "Speak Plainly Diana" (I was at that show btw), but for the most part, I miss the sonic simplicity of Heat.

As was the case with Vampire Weekend's Contra, my favorite song from Messenger most resembles the sound and story of the songs on Heat.  "How Good You Are" is not only the best song on this album, it's one of my favorite songs from the year.  Absolutely fantastic; full of mystery and simplicity.  Take a listen:


Grade: C-
Blurb: It's not a terrible album, but it seems (to me) to be a step backward from the amazing tone set by Nation of Heat.

Phantogram: Eyelid Movies

I came across Phantogram while learning about the CMJ Festival in NYC back in November of 2009.  I immediately went to Phantogram's website, saw when their album was coming out (9 Feb 2010) and put it on my calendar.  I even set it up to e-mail me the day of the release so I wouldn't forget.  That's how much I loved their sound.  Instantly smitten.  And as soon as Eyelid Movies dropped, I picked it up and I knew I'd purchased one of the year's best albums.

Right off the bat, the album hits you with its two best tracks, and keeps on trucking.   There are one or two songs that don't seem up to snuff on the album, but most of the album is littered with gorgeous vocals, hard-but-not-too-hard electronic beats ("these beats are dope"), and interesting lyrics.  "You've got a mouthful of diamonds / And a pocketful of secrets."  I'm not sure exactly what that means (I can guess), but I like it.  Here (hear), see for yourself:

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Grade: A
Blurb: Eyelid Movies is one of the best albums of 2010, and it's probably going to wind up as my favorite debut album.  It's hard to believe that these New York natives have only just gotten started.

Beach House: Teen Dream

The disappointment of Midlake was directly countered by the euphoria of hazy dream pop duo Beach House.  I liked their two previous albums, but I wasn't planning on buying Teen Dream (only $6!).  However, when the overwhelmingly positive reviews started to pour in, I decided to take a listen (R.I.P. Lala)... and I was floored!

My biggest problem with Devotion, their 2008 effort, is that Beach House failed to duplicate the sonic success of stand-out track "Gila" on the rest of the album.  Devotion and Beach House's self-titled debut were both released by little-known label Carpark; Teen Dream, however, was released by indie powerhouse Sup Pop (whose stable of artists is a who's who of indie rock).  As was the case with labelmates Blitzen Trapper, the move to SupPop proved monumental, and the band released their best record to date.

I don't want to go overboard here, but as soon as I listened to this album, I knew I'd found one of 2010's best albums less than two months into the year.  There are no throwaway tracks.  Half the album is straight up brilliant.  This album is so good that it makes me worry that they'll never top it -- this may be their masterpiece, and how in the world could they produce another record that's just as solid?  My only complaint is that the album is only 10 tracks, which leaves me wanting more, but for my money, it's nearly a flawless album.  I have a hard time choosing a favorite since I love the entire thing, but here's "Norway":


Grade: A
Blurb: If you need to relax or if you need chill music to listen to while you're reading at a coffeeshop, this may be your best bet.  Seriously, go spend $6 you won't regret (I'm looking at you Midlake!)

Midlake: The Courage of Others

Aaaannnnd 2010's biggest musical disappointment goes to... drumroll ... Midlake!  2006's Trials of Van Occupanther was one of the coolest and out-of-nowhere albums, so when news surfaced in late 2009 of a new record from the boys from Denton, TX, I was stoked.  However, Midlake must have found out how much I love disappointment, so they scrapped whatever they had recorded and put out The Courage of Others on the first Tuesday in February.

I don't really know what's wrong with this album.  It lacks soul ... or something.   There's definitely some sort of intangible, some sort of X-factor that was all over Occupanther but that is almost entirely absent from Courage.  And part of it may be my fault -- perhaps I set my expectations too high -- but they had 3.5 years to work on Courage, so I'm not sure what they were doing for that entire time (you can only play too much Wii before it becomes stale and boring, so I'm sure that wasn't it).

Surprisingly, a fair amount of music critics liked the album (hint: I'm not one of them).  Not surprisingly, my favorite track on Courage sounds like it could have earned its way onto Occupanther:


Grade: D+
Blurb: Ok, so this album isn't the end of the world, but it certainly was enough to make me wonder what in the world the guys who made The Courage of Others had done with Midlake.  (Go pick up The Trials of Van Occupanther if you don't already own it.)