Treats, the debut album from the Brooklyn electro-pop duo Sleigh Bells, is a thrill ride: It's aggressive but not macho and smart without losing its sense of fun. Most of all, it's somehow both an aural assault and a piece of pop candy, albeit one in a overblown wrapper. In Sleigh Bells, Derek Miller is responsible for the excessively compressed beats and abrupt guitars, while singer Alexis Krauss provides a melodic counterpoint, with a sweetness that can turn fierce.
For all the aural assaults contained therein, Treats lives up to its name. A guitar in "Infinity Guitars" sounds like The Kinks' Dave Davies playing "You Really Got Me," while a liberal sample from Funkadelic's Maggot Brain forms the basis for the breeziest song on the record, "Rill Rill."
The overblown percussion can be exhausting — Treats will certainly be polarizing — but this music is much warmer and bassier than any of the demos I'd heard leading up to the album's release.
Sleigh Bells' Treats will stream here in its entirety for a week, starting on its May 11 release date.
Sleigh Bells - Beach Girls
Sleigh Bells - Crown On The Ground
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