The New Sound (with no Reindeer)

Sleigh Bells is a two-member band: Derek Miller, musician extraordinaire, and Alexis Krauss on vocals. The band formed in 2008 in Brooklyn and released Treats in 2010. Miller was working on a project and needed a female singer for the project. Sleigh Bells’ music is considered power pop.

#38 – Sleigh Bells, Treats (Metascore = 89)

Let me start out by saying that this album is staggering musically. Is it complicated music? Not really, but the sound achieved by Miller, from vocals to instruments to sounds, makes this record the achievement that it is. The drums and guitar hit you like a bomb in “Tell ‘Em” and continue throughout the record. Even songs like “Rill Rill”, which is about the only song with acoustic guitars, have an extraordinary dynamic to them that I just haven’t heard on many other records. This record baffles me much the way The XX’s record did in that the melodies are just catchy. You want to nod your head listening to “Crown on the Ground” or sway with the music in “Rill Rill”.

In listening to the lyrics, the overriding theme seems to be teenage angst. Look at the album cover—it’s a picture of cheerleaders in a pyramid. There’s nothing fancy to these lyrics, and often times the lines are repeated. The delivery is the key here. Krauss sings the lyrics in a style that at times sounds like M.I.A. Speaking of M.I.A., she originally signed the band to her record label, having heard demos from Miller of the music and working with him on a song for her record MAYA. Krauss’ voice is high-pitched and a lot of times she sounds as if she’s doing a cheer in her songs. Actually, that’s probably the best description of the songs and lyrics together—they sound like she’s cheering to the marching band’s music.

I think the drawback to this record, why it isn’t rated any higher than it is, is the lyrics. There’s nothing provocative about these lyrics to me. Maybe one could infer something from the piecing together of words, but as far as I’m concerned, some of the songs were put together during a Scrabble game. “Infinity Guitars” is a great song musically, but the words mean nothing to me. If it weren’t for the way Krauss delivers the lyrics, the record would be better off without lyrics.

All that said I have been blown away by this record. The drawbacks are minimal, though I do feel like they dragged the overall score down. I can see this album being the precursor to a number of artists with similar sound—pop music with a hard edge that will draw in more than it turns away.