For all intents and purposes, James Mercer seems to be nothing more than an average, everyday working-class man. He’s got two kids, a wife and probably a nice, quaint little house on the outskirts of the city. He obsesses over the same things as most of us probably do—he’s kept up all night by insomnia, his heart’s been stomped on at least once or twice and he’s had a reputation for feeling rather isolated in his little bubble of friends and family. On The Shins’ four full-lengths, Mercer dwells constantly on these worries and personal problems through his own brand of wonderfully meandering and infectious indie pop.
But what happens when Mercer takes a step outside of the life of the everyday man?
If his side project with producer Brian Burton (also known as Danger Mouse) is any indication, he leaves this entire atmosphere. Broken Bells is the distinctly extraterrestrial yin to The Shins’ earthly yang, with Mercer’s musings of life and love injected with a heavy dose of soul and set to groove-heavy electronics and bursts of orchestral crescendos.
While the duo’s first self-titled outing in 2010 was mostly forgettable and disjointed, After The Disco feels refined and uniform. Indeed, Mercer and Burton seem more like a collective group now, as opposed to two guys from very different musical spheres making some songs together. “Perfect World,” the album’s magnificent opening song, is deliciously moving and silky. A catchy tune at its core, “Perfect World” eventually evolves over its six-minute run time into a textured and weightless reintroduction and hands-down the best song the project has produced.
Burton and Mercer repeatedly show on After The Disco how much they’ve improved at playing off of each other’s strengths—that is, Burton’s aptitude for constructing lush, other-worldly tonal atmospheres and Mercer’s eloquent and quirky poetry and smooth yet direct vocal style. The title track, for instance, builds from Danger Mouse’s bursting beat into a huge chorus made perfect by Mercer’s signature waning lyricism: “How did I get into this winding maze of love/And there’s something wrong/Well it’s sending you ‘round and ‘round/Still we go nowhere.” Meanwhile, the spacey lead single “Holding On For Life” is more understated and texture based, with Mercer’s falsetto clinging to Burton’s hearty dose of dance-floor groove.
“Leave It Alone” and “Lazy Wonderland” rely on orchestral apexes in their most satisfying moments, and the former track seems to be another crowning achievement for Broken Bells’ sophomore release. “Medicine” and “Control,” on the other hand, are bluesy numbers fully tricked-out with a horn-laden bridge and a surprisingly poignant xylophone outro.
After The Disco unfortunately loses steam during its final two songs. The penultimate “The Angel and the Fool” is mostly just boring and seems to drone on to a repetitive acoustic strum and some minimalist electronics. Finally, the bombastic “The Remains of Rock and Roll” is easily the worst of the bunch. A too-busy faux anthem laced with cheesy ‘80s synth and a stilted string element, “The Remains of Rock and Roll” is more an example of everything that can go wrong with this partnership than a proper send-off to a mostly impressive record.
While After The Disco is a fun and surprisingly substantial set of songs, it ends up being a mildly frustrating listen. Even though the partnership is so much stronger and congruent nowadays than on the scatterbrained Broken Bells, Mercer is undeniably the star here. This is not to discredit Danger Mouse to any fair extent, since I openly hold Mercer among the ranks of my favorite songwriters. But ultimately, all After The Disco really does after the overblown final track fades out is make me hungry and anxious for new material from The Shins.
Indeed, each listen to Broken Bells’ sophomore outing leaves me satisfied but doesn’t make me hit the replay button. Rather, I put After the Disco back on the shelf and drop the needle on the sleepy masterpiece Wincing The Night Away or the grandiose, wild Port of Morrow for the rest of my day. After The Disco is certainly a welcome trip to unknown corners of the universe for two wonderful musicians, but, in the end, Mercer is best suited for planet Earth.
Critic’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Jordan Walsh can be reached at jordan.walsh@theminaretonline.com