Everything About Sleigh Bells Is Too Much

Sleigh Bells open "Comeback Kid" like they’re trying to collapse the speakers—Derek Miller’s guitar feedback chewing through the intro before Alexis Krauss arrives and somehow makes it sound like a pop song. That’s the trick they’ve been running since Treats, their 2010 debut that sounded like someone had crossed a cheerleader practice with a noise band and then mixed the whole thing too loud on purpose.

"Comeback Kid" is from Reign of Terror, their second album, and it’s one of the moments where the maximalism tips over into something almost vulnerable. Krauss sounds less like a weapon here and more like someone tired of being tough. The melody underneath all that distortion is genuinely affecting—you catch it somewhere around the second chorus and can’t unhear it. The whole record has that quality: aggression as a delivery system for feeling.

The noise isn’t a wall to hide behind. It’s how they let things in.