Album of the Week: Sleigh Bells - Treats

Wow, what a weekend. Trenches, crazy girlfriends and their movie scenes, chicken outings, and a Wiz Khalifa look-alike were some of the sights down South this weekend, and as for the sounds, they mostly consisted of lifted rappers. While that is not a bad thing, the VMA's last night certainly were. I have never in my life seen a more irrelevant and marketing driven, passion-less display of "music" since, well, the last time the VMAs were on. (Chelsea Handler's "jokes" helped extinguish the cool part of deadmau5 and his amazing lights showing up. Florence and the Machine also finally got the press she deserves.) The concern is not necessarily for the industry, since their manufactured "superstars" took home "award" after "award" for a staggeringly catered selection of artists. The Grammy's is a laughable event anymore, but the VMAs gladly sunk lower, proving that modern music is in the midst of a considerable identity crisis.

NOT PICTURED : BEST NEW ARTIST

Luckily, there are other new artists cropping up every day, and even luckier, nearly all of them are not named Justin Bieber. The cream of the crop for the "Class of 2010" and for all albums released this year certainly includes the debut record from Sleigh Bells, a duo hailing from Brooklyn (shocker). Their sound has been classified as "noise pop", yet another meaningless genre title given to try to box in artists and describe music using superfluous adjectives. (The main issue with that practice is that music fans end up accepting the opinions of these endless adjectives instead of listening to the music and forming their own opinions. But that's a tale for another time.)

Sleigh Bells are one example where an identity crisis is exactly what music needs, because the result sounds truly fresh and invigorating. Allison Krauss provides lead vocals with hooks that manage to be pretty, violent, and surreal in the span of a chorus. The other half of Sleigh Bells is Derek Miller, whose songwriting and sampling create an energizing blend of metal riffs and pounding hip hop beats never explored by bands actually trying to fuse rap and metal. The result is everything pop music today should be: catchy, fun, innovative, and inspired. 

Sit back and enjoy what will surely be a contender for Album of the Year with this week's feature: Treats by Sleigh Bells

Treats