BROKEN BELLS – After The Disco
1.Perfect World
2.After The Disco
3.Holding On For Life
4.Leave It Alone
5.The Changing Lights
6.Control
7.Lazy Wonderland
8.Medicine
9.No Matter What You’re Told
10.The Angel And The Fool
11.The Remains Of Rock’n’Roll
A man is lying on his sofa, watching TV. Suddenly he’s dropping his remote control- but instead of landing on his living room floor it’s landing in the sand of another planet. A blurred trip through a seventies science fiction movie starts- attended by music from BROKEN BELLS new record After The Disco. The duo – consisting of the DJ and producer Brian Burton aka DANGER MOUSE and James Mercer, front man of the American indie rock band THE SHINS – created this galactic short movie to tease their second album After The Disco. Four years have passed since the release of their critical acclaimed, self-titled debut record – accordingly the expectations have been high.
After The Disco feels like a homage to the seventies disco sound. Cosmic old-school synthies, catchy choruses sung by Mercer in his falsest voice and drifty beats brand the sound-of course much better produced then in the seventies. Past and present coalesce – but nothing really new arises. The reputed cosmic future sound has nothing to do with the future, but with the past – everything has already been there. Mercer uses in fact a greater vocal spectrum than with his band THE SHINS , but his falset voice- especially in Holding On For Life and After The Disco- reminds intensely of Barry Gibb from the BEE GEES. Also the fact that BROKEN BELLS use self-leveled music instead of samples can’t belie that their album is more past than present. The duo doesn’t hide that and said that they’ve been inspired by old science fiction movies, the soundtrack of Miami Vice and DAVID BOWIE. No mistake- but slowly it’s time for something new and not another homage- to -the –past- record.
Overall the album seems a bit dreary – Mercers sometimes annoying falset voice, monosonic synthies and even beats. There aren’t any surprises on After The Disco and that truly is a shame because such two incredible artists could have created something greater.
With their second album, “After The Disco”, BROKEN BELLS created an acceptable, catchy record which reminds strongly of the seventies disco pop. But unfortunately the sound doesn’t deliver anything new.
NBHAP Rating: 3/5