CD REVIEW: Sleigh Bells “Treats”

                When I first heard Sleigh Bells, they were on a compilation so I ended up seeking out their most current album at the time, which was not this one, but then I still heard songs on compilations from this album.   So finding this album for me once upon a time (About this time last year) was a pleasant surprise as I thought they only really had “Reign of Terror” under their proverbial belt.

                Being the first of their three albums, it is the one that I’ve heard the second most yet still somehow prepares you for the disaster ahead.  In many ways, listening to Sleigh Bells album by album is like surviving a slightly worse earthquake each year or so. 

                I don’t mean that at all in a bad way, but rather in the strictest sense that the intensity of the music grows with each album until one day they’re just going to end up sounding like KMFDM or someone along those lines.

                There is screeching synth.   There is trunk pounding drum machine bass drum effects.  And really, I just like to think of this as being the perfect antipop.  It wants so badly to fit in, to be catchy and radio friendly, but just little bits and pieces keep it from achieving that (on purpose might I add) and thus it is simply brilliant.