Summer school kids, take cover. The Sound of 2010 just got here and it is LOUD. Punishingly loud. Don’t let the kitschy, yuletide name of Sleigh Bells fool you: this band is, for lack of a more fitting phrase, ridiculously badass.
The girl-guy duo consists of tatted-out Brooklyn residents Alexis Krauss and Derik Miller, whose respective histories in 90s teen pop and experimental noise rock have been fused to create Treats, the grandest entry yet in a sub-genre of music that has emerged from blogosphere discourse in association with disparate acts like No Age and Crystal Castles: noise pop.
However reductive the critical impulse to compartmentalize music into esoteric genres may be, this particular term works well to describe what Sleigh Bells do, which combines the unbridled intensity of metal and punk with the delirious giddiness of girly Top 40 music. Like the early work of M.I.A., whose record label N.E.E.T. released Treats, many of the songs on this LP first showed up as mp3s on the Internet last year and, after amassing ferocious hype, have returned in better-produced form to comprise the tracklist of a smashing debut.
At just over half an hour, Treats is short, but a listen through its eleven songs promises plenty of drops for your heart, spins for your head, and urges to dance. Despite the distinctness of Sleigh Bells’ sound and style, their debut proves the band is not a one-trick pony by delivering just enough diversity—the explosive horsepower of jams like “A/B Machines” and the duo’s best song, “Crown on the Ground,” is tempered with the relative chillness of tracks like the breezy “Rill Rill.” Also, it must be emphasized that this music is, at its essence, pop.
Those uninterested in jarring or confrontational sounds will likely be persuaded to dance along by the catchy melodies sung by a charismatic female, Krauss, who sounds sweetly content amid chaos and clamor. Even if you remain unconvinced after hearing a song or two, exposure to Sleigh Bells will make you think twice the next time you hear someone say that Lady Gaga is “interesting” or “out there.Like most music that is this immediate and engaging, it remains unclear if the immense pleasures of Sleigh Bells’ songs will age well or be remembered with confusion (or even embarrassment). That’s why you should get a hold of Treats as soon as possible. Summer 2010 is this band’s moment! Trust me, it’s happening fast, and it’s a hell of a good time.
