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.

The album starts off with a bang.  “The High Road” is a perfect pop song, with Mercer singing about the difficulty of making unpopular decisions and the fear that comes with setting out on your own.  That’s followed up by “Vaporize,” for which Burton breaks out an awesome organ to set the beat and then busts out a super-mellow horn interlude near the end.  The lyrical content of “Vaporize” seems like a continuation of “The High Road” – how it’s easier to sit and wait for something good to happen and much harder to take that step that could lead to new beginnings but also new failures.

That fear of experimentation is kept solely to the lyrical content, however.  Broken Bells does a marvelous job of mixing synthetic sounds with organic ones.  Synths and drum machines meld perfectly with acoustic guitars, horns, and piano.  Most importantly, it always feels natural.  And that combination is used to run the full gamut of sounds – from modern electro-pop to folky balladry.  “Your Head Is On Fire” is a dreamy, pastoral tune that could fit right in with Fleet Foxes.

With such a wide range of styles and sounds, it’s perplexing why Broken Bells don’t apply the same open-mindedness to the tempo of the tunes.  By and large, the songs on this album are rather uniform in that regard.  It’s like a friend who is always the same measured mood no matter how much you try to get a rise out of him.  This album is laid-back and chilled-out and it never seems like the band tried to break out of that mold, even for one song.  This pervasive sameness doesn’t detract from the songs’ individual merits but it does make the album less interesting.  Mercer sums it up best in “October,” when he sings, “Don’t run, don’t rush/just flow.”  And that’s exactly what Broken Bells do; they flow – like a peaceful brook.

Broken Bells is an auspicious debut from two very talented musicians, but they’d be wise to emulate more than just the sound of Gorillaz next time and try for that group’s fearlessness as well.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

-Sam

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.

It’s clear that Gorillaz are a much better group when Albarn’s vocals are present, whether they’re leading the way (”Rhinestone Eyes”) or just accenting a guest (”Superfast Jellyfish”).  When the group essentially becomes little more than a production crew for guest rappers, the quality noticeably drops.  I think that’s because Albarn’s ghostly, near-comatose voice creates a perfect juxtaposition of melancholy versus the bouncy, spaced-out synths.

With Albarn finally in the fold vocally, the music really hits its stride.  “Stylo” immediately locks into a funky, authoritative beat with Mos Def and Albarn trading verses until R&B and soul legend Bobby Womack erupts like a preacher reaching for the rafters.  De La Soul keep the tempo high on “Superfast Jellyfish” which bemoans the way our hectic schedules and freezer-based technologies have turned home-cooked breakfast into three-minute microwave meals – and we’re too oblivious to know the difference, or care.

And that apathy towards the consequences of our decisions is the bedrock for much of the thematic elements of the record.  We hear about “radioactive seas,” “chemical loads,” and “Styrofoam deep sea landfills.”  The Gorillaz crew has taken notice of our disposable culture, but instead of adding to the heap of trash, they’ve made it their home.  Plastic and synthetic waste is a recurring idea in many of these songs, perfectly encapsulated in Lou Reed’s hilariously genius delivery of the line, “Well me, I like plastics and digital foils.”  He sounds like a drug-addled, spaced-out shop teacher who inhaled a few too many burning plastics fumes.

It’s not all environment all the time though.  There are some sweetly sad love songs on here too.  “On Melancholy Hill” is a wistful dream that a girl might settle for you – “where you can’t get what you want/but you can get me.”

Plastic Beach lacks a lot of the infectious dance grooves that permeated their last album, the classic Demon Days, and it’s a little too bloated for its own good.  But when it hits its stride, it really doesn’t look back.  You’ll have fun listening to the music and then you’ll be frightened when you realize the Plastic Beach is more real than just a cartoon fantasy.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

-Sam

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:

1. The High Road
2. Vaporize
3. Your Head Is On Fire
4. The Ghost Inside
5. Sailing to Nowhere
6. Trap Doors
7. Citizen
8. October
9. Mongrel Heart
10. The Mall and Misery

-Sam

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.

01 Orchestral Intro (ft. Sinfonia ViVA)
02 Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach (ft. Snoop Dogg and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
03 White Flag (ft. Kano, Bashy, and the National Orchestra for Arabic Music)
04 Rhinestone Eyes
05 Stylo (ft. Bobby Womack and Mos Def)
06 Superfast Jellyfish (ft. Gruff Rhys and De La Soul)
07 Empire Ants (ft. Little Dragon)
08 Glitter Freeze (ft. Mark E Smith)
09 Some Kind Of Nature (ft. Lou Reed)
10 On Melancholy Hill
11 Broken
12 Sweepstakes (ft. Mos Def and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble)
13 Plastic Beach (ft. Mick Jones and Paul Simonon)
14 To Binge (ft. Little Dragon)
15 Cloud of Unknowing (ft. Bobby Womack and Sinfonia ViVA)
16 Pirate Jet

-Sam

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