Posts Tagged ‘Gorillaz’
Album Review: Broken Bells – “Broken Bells”
It’s a shame that Broken Bells had to release their debut album on the same day that Gorillaz dropped their latest, Plastic Beach (which I reviewed yesterday).
That’s because, as I’ve mentioned before, Broken Bells sounds strikingly similar to their cartoon counterparts much of the time, but without the wild eccentricity and excitement. Those comparisons are inevitable since one half of Broken Bells is Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse, who produced Gorillaz’ epic album Demon Days. The omnipresent analog synths that are Gorillaz’ trademark are present here as well, which usually leaves the singers as the only major difference between the two groups.
But that’s a significant difference. Whereas Damon Albarn plays off his hushed, melancholic croon in Gorillaz, James Mercer, of the Shins, adds a greater range to the styling of Broken Bells.
But Broken Bells is not a rip-off of Gorillaz and deserves to be judged on its own merits.
Plastic Beach – it’s the new compound for the cartoon characters which make up Gorillaz (and what you see on the album cover). According to a press release, it’s “made up of the detritus, debris and washed up remnants of humanity. This Plastic Beach is the furthest point from any landmass on Earth; the most deserted spot on the planet.”
And that’s an absolutely fitting place for this group of misfits to take up residence since Gorillaz make some of the most genre-melting and unique pop music you’ll hear. They don’t fit in anywhere but on their own unnatural island somewhere in the middle of the ocean.
It’s just too bad that the album starts off like its inspiration, and by that I mean a big pile of garbage.
Plastic Beach starts off harmlessly enough with a minute-long and rather unnecessary orchestral intro before segueing into the second track which is basically another intro track, only this time we get to hear Snoop Dogg phoning in some of the laziest rhymes he’s done as he welcomes everyone to the fictional island. With track three, “White Flag,” we finally get a real song. Unfortunately, it’s downright annoying and easily the worst song on the album. It features two British rappers, Bashy and Kano, who sound like two amateur freestylers struggling to come up with something clever to say over a lousy beat.
That’s over eight minutes of at best useless and at worst annoying music to start off the record. When you dig a hole that deep, it’s damn near impossible to get out. But Damon Albarn finally shows up on track four, and all is well with the world again.
Broken Bells: Gorillaz Jr.?
Broken Bells, the new group made up of Brian Burton (aka Danger Mouse) and The Shins’ James Mercer, will be releasing their debut self-titled album on March 9.
They have two songs from the album, “Vaporize” and “The High Road,” streaming over at their Myspace page. iTunes is also offering “The High Road” as their free single of the week, so go grab that.
Given that Burton has worked with Gorillaz in the past, producing their acclaimed album Demon Days, it’s no surprise that those influences come on strong in this project as well. In fact, “The High Road” sounds almost exactly like a Gorillaz track, only with Mercer singing instead of Damon Albarn. And that’s not exactly a bad thing, since Demon Days pretty much rocked. The main difference is that Broken Bells doesn’t seem to be embracing the whole electro-dance aspect of Gorillaz’ music, focusing instead on the moody, quirky part.
Track list for Broken Bells after the jump:
A couple of days ago, Gorillaz leader Murdoc announced to the world that his cartoon group’s new album Plastic Beach was almost finished.
Well, today we got the official release date as well as the first single.
Plastic Beach will be released on March 9th, and the first single called “Stylo” is currently available on the band’s YouTube channel HERE.
“Stylo” doesn’t hit you over the head with Gorillaz’ trademark ingenuity the same way that “Feel Good Inc.” did way back in 2005 when it swept the country. Instead it opts to lock into a rock-solid funky disco beat that maintains a chill vibe throughout the song while guest vocalists Bobby Womack and Mos Def do most of the emoting. One thing’s for sure though - when it comes to Gorillaz, they rarely have many tracks that sound the same, so even if you can’t totally get into this first single, I’m betting there will be something on the new album that will get your hips shaking.
And like usual, the band has recruited more than its share of guests to appear on Plastic Beach. Some of those guests include Snoop Dogg, Lou Reed, and De La Soul. Count me as particularly interested to hear the Snoop collaboration.
The full tracklist is after the jump.
Gorillaz are set to release a new album called Plastic Beach in March, and the cartoon band’s bassist, Murdoc, has taken to Twitter to let us know how it’s coming along:
Album almost finished. Drinks being mastered. Isolation kicking in. Bucket of Propofol to help me sleep. Happy 2010!!!
and…
Urrp!! Just finished mixing new Gorillaz track with er….‘My ARSE’!. Sounds pretty good…Can’t wait to play it.
So it seems like Murdoc, 2D, Noodle, and Russel have things running right on schedule. Plastic Beach will be the group’s first proper studio album since 2005’s electro-pop smorgasbord Demon Days.
-Sam