After the Disco

After The Disco is an exceptionally successful record filled with the type of uplifting melody we've come to expect from the pair, as well as more direct, clearer lyrics and an overall sharper edge.

With After The Disco--Broken Bells’ second full-length album--Mercer and Burton up the ante with a set that builds on the promise of their debut and fleshes out that aesthetic into an even stronger set of songs with loftier ambitions.

The whole album is rich with memorable hooks, as opposed to just the singles.

After the Disco is the rare, superior sequel--think Toy Story 2--to Mercer and Burton's seemingly one-off self-titled 2010 debut as Broken Bells.

The songs are full of characters.... The pop structures, meanwhile, are comfortingly crisp verse-chorus-verse and the settings are, at best, subliminally familiar without being too blatant about their sources.

Another beguiling collection that merges New Wave and dance sensibilities with winsome pop melodies.

Ironically, given its disillusioned tone, After the Disco offers welcome confirmation of the vast and varied terrain available to pop and rock when it dares stray away from the mainstream or merely contemporary.

The panoramic melancholy may lack variety for some, but sorrow rarely sparkles this wonderfully. [Feb 2014, p.112]

For the most part, though, After The Disco unfolds at a fertile equidistance from each man’s comfort zone (inasmuch as a polymath like Burton can be said to have one) and the results are a marked improvement.

After The Disco is an unashamedly brilliant pop album that might just be the right kind of stuff to get you through the remains of winter.

The rhythmic, melodic and thoughtful After The Disco stands as impressive proof of the strength of their partnership. [Feb 2014, p.74]

It's lovely stuff. [Feb 2014, p.90]

After The Disco displays a sense of focus that feels like the two musicians finally coming together as a band--although, unfortunately, the album is not quite as sonically diverse as one might hope.

This second Broken Bells album is going to be the Random Access Memories of 2014. Only it’s a way better record, brimming with energy, urgency and something Daft Punk’s pop breakthrough is missing: an appropriately dirty sonic edge and--if you can collect your thoughts amidst all the booming bass and squint your eyes just right past the blinding DJ lights--some damn fine songs.

The duo, who linked up after each found unlikely fame in the mid-'00s, dance to remember, not to forget. Though it's with love that they stockpile these sounds, the mood is muted.

Taken solely as part of the Broken Bells discography it’s their best effort yet: a textured, kaleidoscopic pop record that crackles with imagination, and hints at the sign of something brilliant to come.

Given Burton and Mercer's pedigrees, it's hard not to want more from Broken Bells, but After the Disco's strongest moments suggest that their music is coming into focus.

Usually, the album is smart, catchy and pretty funny in itsmarriage of smoothness and geekiness.

As a whole, After the Disco finds Broken Bells no longer feeling like a side project. There is a degree of consistency and focus not present on their eponymous debut.

The temptation to skip back to the start will probably creep in after a few plays, but stick with it and further, less immediate treasures will be revealed.

Even though After The Disco lacks some boldness and experimentation, the record most definitely has its strong moments and, like its predecessor, it’ll please fans from either party who will most likely feel content from the first listen.

Despite being the result of creative restlessness, After The Disco never really takes us anywhere new. By playing it safe, however, Mercer and Burton have also made it pretty difficult for fans to feel disappointed by it.

A welcome comeback.

If 2010 debut Broken Bells melted together seemingly incongruous approaches, After the Disco lands Mercer and Danger Mouse in a new universe entirely.

Had Broken Bells combined the best songs from their two albums, they would have made a heck of a statement. As it is, they offer promising glimpses of what might have been.

Not really a blockbuster, it’s the kind of album that makes most sense in the small hours, after the party is over.

After The Disco deserves to be heard and delivers a truly pleasant listening experience, rousing even, when the hooks hit the spot. But--and perhaps this is what the duo insightfully intended when they gave the album its title--don’t expect a party.

It is not a bad record--Danger Mouse doesn’t make those--but it does feel safe and predictable rather than fresh and exciting.

It might not be the craven product of a marketing meeting, but it sounds like two talented, successful guys making nice tunes, no less, no more.

So, yes, album number two is a step in the right direction, but once again the journey doesn't always feel worth the effort. [Feb/Mar 2014, p.70]

After the Disco has some memorable hooks, but it doesn't quite lift this work beyond a studied genre piece.

The disillusionment makes for downbeat and decidedly adult pop. [Feb 2014, p.88]

Since the driving tracks are bigger earworms than the carefully crafted, fragile ones, perhaps the duo would’ve done better to focus on the party, instead of what comes after.

After the Disco is a more cohesive record, and that turns out to be the problem: Mercer and Burton's eccentricities have been sanded down to a single, flattened plane.

Despite the immense joy of the final five songs, the prospect of a repeat play is a discouraging one when the first five brought forth a cynicism entirely unwelcome among a collection designed to elicit wonder.

Generic enough to have been produced by anyone, After the Disco is a yawner made by two artists whose impressive discography makes its failure that much more confounding.