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Wanna push this blogger’s buttons? A surefire winner always is the mix of indelible melodies with chaotic guitar noise, whatever the context and other elements at work. But while many critics were hailing Treats, the 2010, M.I.A.-endorsed debut by the Brooklyn duo Sleigh Bells, as a masterpiece in exactly that mould, to these ears, the major buzz drowned out the minor charms of the much-ballyhooed collaboration between songwriter and producer Derek Miller (ex-Poison the Well) and wispy vocalist Alexis Krauss (formerly of Rubyblue). And album number two is even more of disappointment.
The duo may aim to craft killer pop hooks, the better to offset Miller’s over-the-top dense and harsh wall-of-noise backings and generic electro-beats, but the melodies never grab you, as much because Krauss’s chirpy little-girl cooing annoys more than it seduces, as well as the...
To wax unduly nostalgic about the loss, as Baby Boomers invariably do when considering their fallen heroes, seems particularly inappropriate for an artist who railed against living in the past and being force-fed somebody else’s canon while his own went unheralded. (Scoff if you like, but he cared much more about the Melvins than Jimi Hendrix.) “Hate Haight! I’...
