Sleigh Bells: Treats

weird that this is so universally received as "indie" rather than pop. like this is the sound of someone bringing confrontational tones & energy to staid indie, rather than bringing indie tones & aesthetics (everygirl vocals, shitgaze sonics) to pop. maybe that's splitting hairs.

this is a good point - musically you can really make a case for either, and i like that. unfortunately, CMJ/stereogum/pitchfork decided this band's narrative within about 5 minutes of their first show.

OK I was closest. Said 8.9! Eat it, ksh!

I said 8.5 -- closest x2, I suppose?

i had privately predicted 8.8 -- it was a pretty easy score to predict tbh -- first VW record got an 8.8 & the xx got an 8.7 -- this is pretty much the same thing

Honestly, this is maybe the first LP in a while where I wasn't even curious what P4K's score/review would be.

With VW or The xx or whoever, their perspective and take on what the bands were doing was something potentially valuable or interesting, but my experience of Sleigh Bells is so visceral and removed from the kind of critical discussion that surrounds other indie bands I listen to that this is 100% irrelevant maybe? Difficult to articulate the reasons for this exactly.

love this idea from jonathan bradley and his sleigh bellsing of "float on" is pretty much exactly why i can't get that into this album http://screwrocknroll.tumblr.com/post/594017675/modest-mouse-float-on-the-saturday-clubs-slay

i had privately predicted 8.8 -- it was a pretty easy score to predict tbh -- first VW record got an 8.8 & the xx got an 8.7 -- this is pretty much the same thing

Except that, well, the xx and VW are both making great music, and Sleigh Bells really don't have the songwriting strength of those two bands.

Is it just me or does Pitchfork shit out 8+ ratings every other day now? Sleigh Bells has an interesting concept and OK execution but Schreiber et al are too smart to actually believe it's album of the year.

My prediction for Sleigh Bells was way off by either a 0.2 or the video of the monkey sniffing it's butt.

OK I was closest. Said 8.9! Eat it, ksh!

― Evan, Friday, May 14, 2010 12:11 AM (8 hours ago)

http://www.lostisagame.com/photos/311/311_you_win.jpg

OK, LCD Soundsystem's This Is Happening: 9.0 / Best New Music

I want to see something get a 9.0 and not Best New Music. "This record is incredible, but we don't recommend it."

Nah, it's gonna be a bit lower for LCD this time.

8.6 / BNM

Pitchfork basically lauding Sleigh Bells for being the anti-chillwave:

When so much music seems designed to evoke the mood and vibe of a specific era, either through direct imitation or playing with the memories of the music's context, Sleigh Bells deftly avoid any single pigeonhole.

did i call that or did i call it?

part of the reason i like this is bc i keep thinking of a LOT of things while i listen to it. it's not as pigeon-holed as it could have easily been.

― i fake it so real, i am beyonce (surm), Tuesday, May 11, 2010 8:29 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

So when pitchfork confirms something it officially becomes fact?

^ booming post imo

i don't think that's what surm meant

people come up w/ all these theories & opinions, but when P4k confirms it shit goes metaphysical & you cannot refute the truths irrefutably expounded upon in impeccable HTML before your eyes

youa re the river flow

have a heart have a heart

Sleigh Lolz

http://rekkerd.org/img/200912/PLP_Sleigh_Bells.jpg

Results 1 - 10 of about 256 for gaydiohead. (0.28 seconds)

Is it just me or does Pitchfork shit out 8+ ratings every other day now? Sleigh Bells has an interesting concept and OK execution but Schreiber et al are too smart to actually believe it's album of the year.

Really don't care for the this album. It's quite loud and "wonder what your boyfriend thinks about your braces" is such an annoying lyric it makes me want to stop the music by pouring coke on my laptop.

I say we pretend the last month of talking about sleigh bells never happened and we just go back to talking about Vampire Weekend and class signifiers or James Murphy's record collection. start over.

I want to see something get a 9.0 and not Best New Music. "This record is incredible, but we don't recommend it."

There's a hypothetical kind of record this would make sense for -- something that's amazing at what it does, but somehow so specific/niche/inaccessible that you wouldn't recommend it to people in general. "This will be super-awesome to certain people, but don't worry if you're not one of them."

you aret he river flow

h4v3 4 h34rt h4ve 4 h34rt

What's up with albums from dudes formerly in hardcore/screamo bands taking a ride on the Pfork disco stick lately? Dude quits Poison the Well, forms Sleigh Bells with kindergarten teacher = Best New Music. Dude quits American Nightmare/Give Up the Ghost, forms Cold Cave with noize dude and chick from Xiu Xiu = also highly regarded. Are there other examples of this recently?

There's a band named Cold Cave? Another great band name.

Not to be confused with the band Cold, or the band Cave.

Cold, creators of the song hall of fame shoe-in "Stupid Girl"

Loved the reindeer jpeg the first time, even maybe second time, but unless we've decided to imagebomb this thread can we curtail it, k$ha?

Cold, creators of the song hall of fame shoe-in "Stupid Girl"

I prefer to think of Cold as "Stupid Band."

Mordy: sure thing dude.

to ppl who are complaining about how this album will grate after repeated exposure/not end up on eoy lists, can i just say i am way more interested in a record that blows people away on first listen and is so brash and outspoken its novelty wears off than some nuanced indie rock album with really layered production or whatever. getting caught up in exciting fun silly music is a good look, would rather not be the guy scoffing and listening to the national when i could be listening to sleigh bells.

can i just say i am way more interested in a record that blows people away on first listen and is so brash and outspoken its novelty wears off than some nuanced indie rock album with really layered production or whatever

sincerely interested in why you feel this way. could you expand on this, samosa?

less pretentious

not that i feel that way i'm just sayin

umm i just think there's a lot to making novel, head-turning music that people sometimes don't feel is legitimate but imo totally is, primary aesthetic experience and that sort of thing. if the first few times listening through an album are incredible, to me that is super valuable. as much if not more as if on your 15th listen you are still discovering new things and your enjoyment of the songs evolves.

i like albums that grow on you, too, but not as much tbh and i don't have that experience that often anymore.

I HATE THIS GODDADMN BAND

umm i just think there's a lot to making novel, head-turning music that people sometimes don't feel is legitimate but imo totally is, primary aesthetic experience and that sort of thing. if the first few times listening through an album are incredible, to me that is super valuable.

― samosa gibreel

Its OK to just enjoy it now than.

i sympathize with that feeling, i feel like that sort of reevaluatino inevitable with a lot of music. hindsight is maybe a bit overrated anyways, esp in worlds where people continue talking and making ordered lists of albums on forums, sometimes i have to remind myself to get in the moment and not give a shit about any of that stuff and just kick it.

that would work if this was a good album but its not.

definitely loving sleigh bells in the here and now. kinda being careful not to overplay it though, cuz it seems like something that'll fade fast...

I HATE THIS GODDADMN BAND

HI DRUNKY U R MISSPELLING UR WORDS 2 US

Definitely agree with contenderizer w/r/t "being careful not to overplay it." This is definitely a record that I could see myself just listening to again and again so much that I'll buy it, shelve it, and pick it up very rarely after that. If there's one thing to be said about albums that reveal themselves after multiple listens, it's that these records are often ones that can be played again and again, but even there I'll reach this thing where after, say, between forty and seventy listens -- and yes, I've probably listened to some records that many times -- I'll almost never want to hear it again. I've heard, like, Wilco's A ghost is born so much that, even though I love that record, I seldom desire it.

Still, I wouldn't want to live in a world without both immediate, "this fucking rules" kind of records and "reveals itself over time" sort of records too.

Also:

getting caught up in exciting fun silly music is a good look, would rather not be the guy scoffing and listening to the national when i could be listening to sleigh bells.

I agree with the first part of this, and I'm not a fan of the second type of person, but I'm more interested in being a third type of listener myself: the person who can get caught up in "fun, silly music" and "some nuanced indie rock album"--or "some nuanced" any kind of album. Limiting yourself to enjoying one type of record, or privileging one type of record exclusively over all others, is totally boring to me. Not that that's what anyone is calling for here, and not that I don't have many blindspots or proclivities to listen to certain types of music over others.