Who knew that back in 2004 when I downloaded DJ Danger Mouse’s The Grey Album, a seemingly innocuous mashup of Jay-Z’s Black Album with The Beatle’s White Album, that I was hearing what was to become one of the defining artists of the “New Millennium?” Who could have known that he would go on to rock the world with Gnarls Barkley and help create the biggest song of the decade as well as pumping new life into artists such as The Black Keys and Beck? It’s stories like these that make me love the internet. This kind of rise would’ve been impossible if he had just been passing his mixtape around to his friends.

Now, he’s moved on to partnering with James Mercer, the lead singer of The Shins and I couldn’t be happier. After being thoroughly underwhelmed with the new albums from Gorillaz and MGMT, it was nice to finally buy an album that I wanted to listen to a second and third time, and not because I was searching for something to like.

The album is simultaneously groundbreaking and not groundbreaking and that’s a good thing. They take their respective strengths and put them together and they fit perfectly. It’s just a great, relaxing ride. When my wife asked me why I liked it so much, all I could say was, “There’s nothing offensive about it. Nothing to not like. Just great songs that can be replayed and replayed.” I’ve done so five times since downloading the album yesterday and in an attempt to ween myself away from it gradually, I created a Broken Bells radio on Pandora so I’d at least have something else playing as well.

I can’t really pick a particular song that captures the feeling of the album, the entire album is that feeling, so I’ll just embed the Lala of the whole thing after the jump for you to check out yourself. Let me know what you think.. Read more