Treats

You can always tell when a particular musical style is having its moment, because the bandwagon-jumping starts. Folks have seen the likes of Wavves, Vivian Girls, Abe Vigoda, Crystal Castles and others ride a combination of scuzzy, overdriven noise and bratty-snotty hooks to a certain level of bloggy respect and thought, "Hey! I want a piece of that action!" And that leads to acts like Sleigh Bells.  Instrumentalist Derek Miller and singer Alexis Krauss have been around the block a couple times, she as singer for the early 2000s pre-packaged girl group RubyBlue and he as guitarist and songwriter for Florida post-hardcore (remember post-hardcore?) b-listers Poison the Well. All it took was a move to Brooklyn, a hookup with M.I.A.'s N.E.E.T. label and an album's worth of short, underwritten songs that mix vaguely hip-hoppish programmed beats, half-rapped vocals delivered in a breathless, babyish voice, and heavily-processed guitar sounds that are just a little too perfectly manicured. Admittedly, first single "Crown on the Ground" is shameless enough in its hucksterism to be a fun listen once or twice, but a little of this kind of cynical opportunism goes a long, long way.