Sleigh Bells

Brooklyn-based duo Sleigh Bells have largely been dubbed a “noise rock” outfit, and their debut album Treats is certainly chock full of enough bombastic bass and whacked-out, jangly guitar riffing to earn the description. Even listening to the album on iPod headphones, it sounds extravagantly loud. But there’s a touching, airy sweetness in vocalist Alexis Krauss’ various ooh’s and ahh’s that unites a sometimes droney post-punk sobriety with throwback girl-group poppiness—and makes this record a serious candidate for the summer jam of 2010. Singer, mogul and all-around-cool-person M.I.A. had a major hand in producing Treats, and her sensibility hovers unmistakably in the jolting, rapid-fire beats interlaced with sing-songy chanting that dominate the album. But on tracks like “Rill Rill,” which finds Krauss angelically cooing over dreamy synth sounds, Sleigh Bells shift fearlessly from assaulting electro-noise to breezy love-song mode, and in the process carve out a spot for themselves as their own brand of fresh fun.