sleigh bells

Looking back on 2009, I found it to be the year of lo-fi, feedback scuzzed out pop. Sleigh Bells are the final straw of confirmation, with a different, skewed angle on the lo-fi aesthetic. What I immediately wanted to know about “Crown on the Ground” was: is is it meant to be this distorted? It seems from the myspace that yes, it is, unless this is a terrible, terrible recording. However, they’re recording an LP due later this year, and these are self-recorded demos, so the question remains.

It seems they might be pushing the limits of loudness, and this topping off, where the sound collapses under over-saturation, sounds intentional, or rather, a by-product of the intensity. The big chorus is key. It kicks in hard and absolutely kills it, both in the positive and negative sense: this big pounding synth fist of a chorus that beats the detail out of the song. I love it though, it’s got muscle and melody, but maybe, just maybe (and this is probably the only time I’ll say this), I might like some clean lines in amongst the distortion. I don’t know. Would I really??

Sleigh Bells – Crown On The Ground

Sleigh Bells – Inifnity Guitars