http://www.myspace.com/sleighbellsmusic
If you told me 10 years ago at the Warped Tour that the guitarist from Poison the Well was going to form a noise pop duo fronted by a former teen pop female singer, I probably would have said “Ha! Yea and Bob Dylan’s going make a Christmas album.” I suppose the times, they are a changin’. Since the fated day hardcore guitarist Derek Miller met singer Alexis Krauss in a Brooklyn diner, the band has escalated at break-neck pace through the indie rock sphere, having landed support from M.I.A.’s label N.E.E.T. The band’s first single “Crown on the Ground” made a common appearance in 2009 best-of lists. This week, the band released their highly anticipated debut album Treats. Consider your speakers broken.
Pushing play on Treats is more like pulling a fire alarm or walking in front of a gun turret. Most of the disc blasts with a topped-out, bleeding-red quality. This ruckus sound developed out of Miller’s desire to get a better tone out of his crunching guitar riffs. He had to blow out his drum machine to EQ with the guitar. Accompanied with Alexis’s monotonous, school-yard taunts, Treats plays like the siren songs of tattooed cheerleaders. Her fluctuations between paper thin, airy vocals to biting, attitudinal shouts push and pull you between infatuation and outrage.
The album leads with four blistering tracks, starting with “Tell ‘Em,” which sends the album rocketing out of your speakers. These are the kind of songs that come up on a mix and send your friends screeching for the volume nob. Miller brings anthemic, triumphant guitar riffs while the drum machine hammers in the background. Krauss joins with empowering, victorious advice to all the girls these days, “Let me say, let me say, let me say/you can do your best to-day/You can do your best today.” Confidence embodies Alexis’s messages, which riot with school spirit. “Kids” follows with “The breeze is nice now/I’ll tell ya right now/I sip my Kool-aid/I’m feeling better now.” It’s not rocket science, but it leaves you nodding along thinking, “Yeah, you drink that juice girl.” “Infinity Guitars” gets down-right nonsensical, “Straight wars, straight men/cowboys, Indians/red souls, red friends/infinity guitar, you’re hard.” And when the breakdown removes any iota of governor you thought was running on this album, you’re either banging along or furiously returning your radio. Maybe both.
Treats does bottom out in the middle for a few tracks. Keeping the pace of the first half of the album would have been exhausting, but as soon as “Run the Heart” comes on, it’s as if Alexis has removed the bandana over her mouth and is made human. Where the jeering on the rocking tracks makes you want to stomp the yard, the “ah ah ah ahs,” paired with clubby synth replace the endearing adolescent vibe with straight annoying. “Rachel” also comes as a misplaced trance number. While there needed to be some break in the album, I can’t help feeling these tracks were rushed cop-outs.
“Rill Rill” beams through the clouds as the most (if not the only) relaxed track on the album, showcasing that Alexis’s raw songwriting capabilities extend beyond their noise pop schtick. When “Crown on the Ground” hits, you’re returned to what Sleigh Bells do best- making your ears bleed with infectious rock. Overall, though Treats has a few skips, it’s damn fun and the formula has legs. Sensitive ears beware!
- matthew hunt
