Taking the High Road to Success

Broken Bells is an American indie duo formed of musicians Brian Burton and James Mercer. Burton is a producer also known as Danger Mouse and Mercer hails from the band The Shins, where he moonlights as the lead vocalist and guitarist. Together they've had a list of hit singles from 2009 to today and two studio albums, the most recent of which was released earlier this year.

Burton and Mercer come from pretty different backgrounds - Danger Mouse is an electronica and hip-hop based act whilst The Shin are a group of indie folk rockers. The result of their collaboration though isn't a confused mix of two very different genres though, it's a wonderful breed of indie pop that bears faint resemblance to Air in its spacey samples, feather-light vocals and slowed tempo. Though don't let that make you think their music doesn't include enough songs to turn your sway into a shuffle into a dance - they mix things up with a very enjoyable disco undertone on several tracks.