On paper Broken Bells should be amazing. The band is made up of The Shins front man James Mercer and Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse, pretty much the preeminent alternative producer of the 2000s.

Inevitably when analysing the musical collaboration of two established artists the natural tendency is to compare the new with their previous work. And while this debut is a slick, pleasantly undemanding set of pop songs from two talented musicians ultimately it comes up short when weighed against the confessional fragility and brilliant melody of a Shins record or the ear worming catchiness of Danger Mouse’s work with Gnarls Barkley, The Gorillaz and Beck. That’s not to say that this is a poor album by any means; it’s actually quite a good one. But when you consider these guys’ musical chops “good” seems a pretty damning adjective.

In a year where big name supergroups like Them Crooked Vultures and The Dead Weather have promised much but delivered little it’s a testament to the chemistry between Mercer and Burton that Broken Bells manages to be more than the sum of its parts; that it sounds like an actual band. Broken Bells really works when the two’s disparate styles are blended evenly.

The album gets off to a great start with winsome ballad The High Road. It subtly blends Mercer’s minor key melodies and Shins-esque strums with a strange creaking keyboard line from Danger Mouse before finishing with chugging piano and the multi-tracked refrain “it’s too late to change your mind/you let loss be your guide.” The polished sheen of Danger Mouse’s production is given an emotional pull through Mercer’s lyrics, a pull which is sadly lacking through the rest of the album.

Vaporize and The Ghost Inside are Broken Bells at their absolute catchiest. In the first Mercer’s existential musings are given some weight by pulsating keyboards and a jaunty bass line, while the choppy violin samples and handclaps of The Ghost Inside are positively dancy. The two tracks are very different musically but are examples of the kind of slick, effortless pop you would expect from the dudes who wrote New Slang and Crazy.

For the rest of the album the duo seem to be on autopilot. While there aren’t any shockers in the remaining six tracks, there aren’t any standouts either. Sailing To Nowhere tries to hide a dearth of lyrical or melodic inspiration with chronic overproduction, washing out the track with over driven keyboards and an out of place classical section with a stately piano figure and big strings. A similar charge could be levelled at album closer The Mall and Misery which begins and ends with an extended string section, sapping all the energy from a Mercer’s yearning melody and insistent guitar.

As the album progresses you begin to notice each member’s input more obviously; you cease to think of them as a band but more as two musicians playing together. It’s a shame given the brilliance of the first few tracks but unfortunately Broken Bells is ultimately a well produced, well performed missed opportunity.