Brooklyn duo Sleigh Bells (Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss) return with 2nd album Reign of Terror, which is more ear-friendly and melondic than their guitar (and ear) damaging debut Treats.
Although, the album does start with crowd noise on opener True Shed Guitar that features Krauss addressing the audience with “New Orleans! What the f*ck’s up? There we go – there we f*cking go!” – which rightly gives you impression, despite being more “pop” here, that the band haven’t lost any of that exciting rawness. You are not about to listen to a Ting Tings-esque indie-pop album, but surprisingly it actually isn’t too far off.
If you want to download one song here, make it the single Comeback Kid. It is awesome. Road To Hell, You Lost Me, Leader of the Pack are all pleasantly weird surprises – as these tunes sound like they could be have been nabbed from the soundtrack of a cheesy 1980s movie. Seriously. It is fair to say that the poppy influence of Alexis is a lot more evident here. Other highlights include Leader of the Pack which has a good old melody on the go.
Therefore you will notice that the scary title and bloody shoes artwork are very misleading! Reign of Terror has moments of fuzzy pure pop that also makes you forget the tinnitus caused by the much more terrifying Treats.
Words by Peter Warne
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