Step one on the road to indie pop success: put out a popular debut. Step two: follow up that popular debut with a quickie EP of extra material. Broken Bells, the collaboration between Shins frontman James Mercer and ubiquitous producer Danger Mouse, can scratch that first step off. Last year’s self-titled debut ended up very popular, selling over 300,000 copies and landing near the top of NPR’s year-end readers’ poll.
As for step two, they’ve got that on the way. On March 29, the band will put out a classic example of the unreleased/B-side/bonus material stopgap EP in the form of Meyrin Fields. Half of the release’s tracks are unreleased, along with one previously released B-side and one album bonus track. Maybe it’s not a lot of new material, but if you need the sweet, delicious nectar that is new Broken Bells, you will survive for another day.
Meyrin Fields tracklist:
01. Meyrin Fields
02. Windows
03. An Easy Life
04. Heartless Empire
• Broken Bells: http://www.brokenbells.com
• Columbia: http://www.columbiarecords.com