“Is disco making a comeback?”
My mom asked me this question while we were out to dinner about two months ago. The restaurant speakers were playing “The Ghost Inside” from Broken Bells’ self-titled debut. She was visibly into it, focused and bobbing her head along to the beat. I considered the popularity of Broken Bells and concluded all too soon that no, disco was not making a comeback. Yet with the recent release followup album “After the Disco,” I find myself ready to revisit the once-contested connection between Broken Bells and the bygone genre.
Title track “After the Disco” explicitly hints at some sort of disco revitalization. This track is perhaps also most aligned with any original disco song, with lamenting, vague vocals overlaying a heavily electronic and synthetic palm-muted guitar sound. “Leave It Alone,” which opens with acoustic guitar and introduces a trap set at the two-minute mark, still incorporates a bed of electronic melodic embellishments. The opening track, “Perfect World,” is particularly upbeat and dance-oriented. Though James Mercer’s vocals are repetitive, and featured more than on other songs on either of the group’s albums, Brian Burton (better known as “Danger Mouse”) still finds a melodic equivalent through either the keyboard or guitar. In fact, every song incorporates at least one of these conventions via highly synthesized elements.
When Broken Bells emerged in 2010, it brought the highly critical “indiesphere” to a screeching halt. The album was, to almost everyone, a perfect project which sounded everything but sloppy. It was pristine, tight and original. The pairing of Mercer and Burton was both surprising and exciting. Where Mercer was otherwise known for his role as beloved frontman of indie-rock powerhouse The Shins, Burton’s main role as a musician and producer of a number of critically acclaimed and diverse artists, from Beck to the Black Keys, added diversity to the already overflowing pot of possibilities.
Half of the fun in Broken Bells remains this idea of the collaborative project: combining talented, multifaceted musicians to create an entirely new sound. Though my mom responded to a disco quality in “The Ghost Inside,” I stand with my earlier statement. There is no way of determining, even after the release of this second album, whether or not the vision of Broken Bells marks any sort of broader disco-inspired trend, simply because the sound remains so unique to the duo. I doubt any other artists could perfect and make original sound so perfectly. If Broken Bells is doing something with disco, it is doing something entirely different from the genre’s hallmarks.
The instant James Mercer and Brian Burton formed Broken Bells, they crafted a distinct sound which captured quirks of each artist — be it Mercer’s distinct voice or Burton’s ability to consistently maintain multi-instrumental balance without overcrowding a distinct melody. “Disco” is just as exciting as Broken Bells’ first LP; just like that aforementioned debut, each song is remarkable.
However, perhaps the weakest of this release is final track, “The Remains of Rock and Roll,” which demands a pitch too high of Mercer and delivers inconsistent instrumentation, with sways of uncreative strings and a seemingly random and abrasive electric guitar solo.
Having said that, it was to a loyal and nervous critical audience that Broken Bells released its second studio album, and the song is hardly bad. Broken Bells at its worst is any other unlikely duo at its best. Long live disc- … or, whatever this is.
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