Review: Sleigh Bells – ‘Treats’


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Treats‘ is the impossibly infectious debut album from Brooklyn based noise pop duo Sleigh Bells.

The unlikely pairing of guitarist/producer Derek E. Miller – ex member of defunct hardcore band Poison The Well, and vocalist Alexis Krauss of long forgotten all American teen-pop girl group Rubyblue, has resulted in a sound so potent and of-the-moment that corporate giants Honda and Windows have enlisted the band’s music for their 2011 TV advert campaigns.

The Kopparberg cider company is also exploiting Sleigh Bells’ slap-to-the-face attention grabbing style in their inescapable U.K. peak-hour TV commercial (“Find the crowd who think every night is Friday night”…that one). So, all very encouraging. Now who are they?

Sleigh Bells formed in 2008; the story goes that Miller was a waiter at a Brazilian restaurant in New York and, for whatever reason, happened to mention to a customer that he was looking to work with a female singer.  The customer immediately volunteered her daughter Alexis, sitting opposite, and although embarrassed by the pushy mother, the two exchanged contact information and close to a year later had come up with the goods in the form of a self-released self-titled seven track EP.

Upon its release, Sleigh Bells began to turn industry heads at once, gaining such fledgling accolades as Band of the Day from The Guardian, and becoming Pitchfork Media‘s 57th best track of 2009. Impressive, huh? Well OK, not very, especially seeing as noise pop contemporaries the Yeah Yeah Yeahs grabbed both 6th and 47th spot. So why has stock in Sleigh Bells now gone in to over drive with the release of ‘Treats’? Why the fawning rush for advertisers to stand shoulder to shoulder with them and say “this music is good, so buy our product”?

Well, far from being this years me-too Matt And Kim, or a reinvention of the once unavoidable winning formula from The Ting Tings, Sleigh Bells offer a sound that is not rooted to one or two stand out tracks. Search the album and you will find there is no filler to be had. ‘Treats’ is smart, gutsy, comes on strong and doesn’t wipe its feet on the mat. It’s really no great mystery that advertising execs have come a’knocking.

‘Treats’ begins at the deep end with ‘Tell ‘Em‘. Machine gun drum bursts and distorted electric guitars are offset by an upbeat hip-hop assortment of hand claps and clicks, before Krauss’ delicate high end vocal takes over as the memorable repetitive melody. This theme of a handful of repetitive notes, repeated lyrics and repetitive beats continues throughout the album, and describing each track would merely consist of finding new ways of rehashing the same words, but for once, this is a good thing.

There’s no uncalled for ballads. No out of place instrumentals. No attempts at being something they’re not. There’s simply one very good idea and eleven bold tracks exploring it with conviction. The Sleigh Bells’ writing process evidently revolves heavily around squeezing every last ounce out of small refrains to create moreish melodies that you can almost imagine children skipping rope to. Well, maybe that’s a bit far, but certainly that’s the level of hear-remember-repeat tune writing we have here.



Rill Rill‘ is perhaps the only exception to the method, with no distortion and a distinctly more casual approach than adopted elsewhere, but never the less the unconventional style is a chip off the old block and the absence of distortion is barely noticeable. It’s still quintessentially Sleigh Bells; it’s still a wide load coming through.

‘Treats’ could have easily become disposable summer pop. But it’s more well thought out than that. The album is simply a must have for the car, for the gym, for the dance floor – and for the record, because being a part of this monster now will only stand you in good stead for the early 2012 release of Sleigh Bells’ second studio album, which if ‘Treats’ is anything to go by, will be absolutely everywhere.

(Ben Atherton)


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One Response

  1. darci 29 June, 2011