When James Mercer of the Shins got together with Brian Burton AKA Danger Mouse, the result became more than the sum of its parts.
Plans for their collaboration were made since 2004 but first blossomed into their first single "The High Road" in 2009. An album had to follow, so in 2010 Broken Bells was released to great critical and popular acclaim. The duo avoided sounding too much like their own individual styles: Danger Mouse laid off the samples, playing drums, organs and keys himself. Mercer stretched his vocal cords into falsetto range, at times. Their creative energies gel like no other contemporary collaboration.
