Now Danger Mouse isn’t one to shy away from unusual projects, and his most recent one, going by the name of Broken Bells, is no exception. Collaborating with breathy Shins vocalist and polarizing figure James Mercer, Danger Mouse is certainly taking a risk, however calculated it may be.

Well Mercer & Mouse just posted their first single, entitled “The High Road”, from their upcoming March released as-yet untitled LP. Like Cinderella, at the stroke of midnight you could receive a download link at just the cost of an e-mail address. Hopefully Columbia has enough bandwidth so they don’t pull a Moonface and have their crash before 8:00am…

As for the track itself, it opens with a soulful keyboard line that sounds like it’s straight from a default garage-band midi file. It doesn’t take long until Mercer chimes in with some near-monotone vocals detailing the plight of some sort of lost-soul female character — and the chorus with its “the high road / is hard to find” certainly illustrates this point. Unlike Gnarls Barkley’s number one (both in order of release and in chart position) single “Crazy”, “The High Road” doesn’t have that WOW-factor that ropes you in and gets you pumped for the full album. With the exception of the jazzy feel of the chorus which includes some interesting Danger Mouse “power-up” arcade surges, most of the track is ho-hum in my opinion. Don’t take my word for it, check out the mp3 below:

Broken Bells // The High Road

And if you like it enough, you can pre-order the LP at the Sony Music Store now. Personally, I’m going to hold off a little later for a couple of tracks before I make the decision to buy.