Broken_Bells 2009 was a year of unprecedented cooperation within the North American indie music scene. Not only did super groups such as Broken Social Scene and New Pornographers record new material despite the growing success of their solo careers, but audiences were also treated to the inconceivable alliance of slow folk, indie guitar gods, Jim James, Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, and M. Ward as a recording and touring act known as the “Monsters of Folk.”

This context may allow us to understand why Broken Bells came about, a collaboration between acclaimed producer Danger Mouse (Brian Burton) who has worked with mega-selling artists such as Gnarls Barkley and Gorrilaz, as well James Mercer of The Shins, a group that Natalie Portman in the film Garden State, famously said, “it’ll change your life.”

By all accounts, Burton and Mercer’s collaboration on the album was in earnest, as they play every instrument on the 10-song album, aside from a string arrangement. And, given Burton’s success as a producer there was little chance that this collaboration would fail commercially. Sure enough, the album has a few radio friendly hits such as “Vaporize” and “The High Road” capitalizing on Mercer’s out front vocal style and Burton’s downbeat tempos. The group have also gone on tour, playing major venues such as The Henry Fonda Theater ( where the Oscars are held in LA) and the Royal Festival Hall in London.

But, like other collaborations in the past year, this one is mainly drawing upon past success and breaks no new ground. One can tell Mercer is unmercifully reigning in his loyal Shins audience with a “Deluxe Limited Edition Music Box” including glow in the dark sticker set and bonus tracks  and Burton is largely just extending his Danger Mouse brand from hip-hop into the indie scene.

I only wish the collaboration result in fresher, more meaningful material. Maybe this would have  happened in 2004, when Danger Mouse released what many had billed as the best album of the year, only to have it stonewalled by EMI record execs because of samples, leading to no distribution of the record aside from a few internet leaks. The end result, a great album but no one making any money. And for Mercer and The Shins, there was probably no better time when their music really did “change people’s lives” as Portman promised, ushering in a new era of popularity for indie folksters & hipsters such as Conor Oberst and others.

And, here’s a fanvid, mixing the Shins and Garden State, along with the famous scene where Portman passes over the headphones and makes her unforgettable prediction.