Into The Blue

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Top 50 Albums of 2022 | #46. Into the Blue Indie Pop is really just the name you give to a bunch of things that have a similar conception to their approach in instrumentation. At least that’s how I view it being labeled nowadays. Whether that’s the case for James Mercer’s side-project outside of The Shins or it’s just so immediately recognized as Indie Pop because of the man’s central role in that band… is hard to know. A lot of that inspiration builds off the duo’s unyielding trust in each other and Burton’s song-building roots in hip-hop, which he’s carried over into his work with other singers, but especially Mercer. “The thing about hip-hop is, when I first started doing that, you make beats and then you play it for somebody and they sit there and listen to it over and over again, and they rap over it,” Burton adds. “And that’s how I work with vocalists. I’ve done that with [Mercer], too. I’ll bring him something, and I would never think to do what he winds up doing.” Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge.

Saturdays" samples a portion of "Tractor" written by James Milne published by Biscuit Music Ltd (PRS) (Administered by Sony/ATV Tunes LLC (ASCAP) o/b/o Sony/ATV Music Publishing (UK) Limited (PRS)). Performed by Shubunkin courtesy Ozit Records.For their first album as Broken Bells since 2014, James Mercer of The Shins and Brian ‘ Danger Mouse’ Burton set out to pay tribute to the vast amount of influences they have in common. The record sees them casting a wide net, presenting a palette that embraces sounds from across the last six decades of popular music. Mercer’s aural abilities have long gleaned a tenor worthy of indie darlings, but it’s his Bee Gees-style falsetto, which flourished briefly on the Shins’ Port of Morrow and at full speed on After the Disco that have elevated the potential of any Broken Bells composition. “I think I pushed myself to find new melodic choices and rhythmic things that are different from what I’ve done with the Shins,” Mercer adds. “But there’s also natural inspiration that occurs in the studio with [Burton].” Since their formation in 2008, Broken Bells, comprising the Shins’ James Mercer and prolific producer Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse, the duo have risen above the “supergroup” connotation often assigned to them. Unlike the subset’s forefathers — Cream, the Highwaymen and Audioslave, to name a few — Mercer and Burton are not making hodgepodges of their own interests. Instead, every Broken Bells project is an amalgamation of the duo’s unrelenting and far-ranging talent, pinnacles of each artist’s most soulful interests that mesh in an almost otherworldly way. And on their newest LP, INTO THE BLUE , 12 years after their first, Broken Bells have reached an apex that is vivid, cosmic and daring. Michael Esposito, Ronald Gilbert, Ralph Scala, Emil Thielhelm - Tenyor Music (BMI) administered by The Royalty Network, Inc. Many contemporary musicians are trying to reintroduce older sounds into their own sonic palettes. In turn, they cycle through a lot of elements that feel more like a pastiche than a connected sound with a single throughline. But for Broken Bells, on INTO THE BLUE , the compositional diversity and the arrangements mesh beautifully. On “Love on the Run,” in particular, the song traverses a long plain that takes shape as a piano ballad, funk dance number heavy on horns and a psychedelic guitar eruption. Mercer and Burton are able to revisit these moments in music history without overselling anything.

James Milne - Biscuit Music Ltd (PRS) (Administered by Sony/ATV Tunes LLC (ASCAP) o/b/o Sony/ATV Music Publishing (UK) Limited (PRS)) With any good musical partnership, there’s a certain level of trust at play. For Mercer and Burton, their friendship has vaulted them into a dynamic that thrives off having confidence in each other’s interests and techniques. “For me, I trust [Burton’s] taste,” Mercer says. “When he introduces something to me, I feel like there’s something great [there], and I just have to dig in and find it. It makes it easier to work hard on something.” With Mercer handling the vocals and many of the arrangements, he’s able to lean on Burton’s keen productional eye and work with him to construct a final shape. “I think, when something is outside of yourself, it’s so easy to judge it than it is when it’s something of your own work,” Burton adds. “The way we work together, we don’t really even have to say so much. We just know, when we’re trying stuff out, if the other person’s into it or not.” The story goes that Mercer and Burton met in 2004 at Roskilde Festival in Denmark and became fast friends, keeping in touch over the next few years, playing demos for each other and sporadically crossing paths on tours. Before Broken Bells were finally assembled four years later, Mercer was working on the Shins’ third record Wincing the Night Away , while Burton and CeeLo Green released the Gnarls Barkley debut St. Elsewhere . “When [Mercer and I] met, I had really just started producing, making beats, that kind of thing,” Burton says. “I actually listened to ‘ An Easy Life’ the other day, and it was funny how we went in, without ever doing anything together, and I think we had a song in a day, or two, so that was a good sign.”

2 Issues