The Michigan Daily - michiganda'ily.com

Tuesday, October 8, 2013 -- 7

The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom Tuesday, October 8, 2013 - 7

ALBUM REVIEW
Bells breaks mold
with latest effort

ALBUM REVIEW
Dale finishes strong

'Rivals' strips down
sound, strengthens
noise-pop genre
 By ERIKA HARWOOD
Daily Arts Writer
The fact that noise pop is a
legitimate enough genre to gar-
ner its own music festival, pod-
casts and (of
course) Wiki- A-
pedia page can
be unsettling Biter RivalS
as well as eye
roll-inducing. Sleigh Bells
As of late, the Mom + pop
subgenres that
have branched
out of indepen-
dent labels not only sound like
adjectives arbitrarily pulled out
of a hat (see: glo-fi, trip hop and
glitterphonics - I made one of
those up, but good luck guess-
ing which one), but also just
plain awful. The idea of noise
pop seems contradictory in the
most obnoxious way imaginable,
like a nil metal Miley Cyrus.
Despite the not-so-positive pre-
conceived notions that can arise
fromhearing astyle described as
the aforementioned, Sleigh Bells
continues to shatter any and all
negative expectations with their
third album, Bitter Rivals.
The title track opens the
album with the most natural
sounds ever to be heard on a
Sleigh Bells album, from the
hard strums of an acoustic gui-
tar all the way down to the bark-
ing dogs in the background,
before lead singer Alexis Krauss
explodes, singing, "It was the
best of times, it was the worst of
times/I had to kill the new sher-
iff in town." Pounding percus-
sion and muffled synths serve as

By HANNAH WEINER
Daily Arts Writer
Listeningto The Speed of Things
will make one anxious. Not in a
bad way, necessarily - more in
a finger-tapping, leg-shaking,
gotta-get-out-
of-the-house- B±
and-explore,
"carpe diem" The Speed
kind of way.
Detroit Of Things
natives Daniel Dale Earn-
Zott and Joshua hardt Jr.Jr.
Epstein, better
known as Dale Warner Bros.
Earnhardt Jr.
Jr., shaped their
sophomore album around the idea
of the accelerating rate at which
everything moves nowadays. But
these two aren't curmudgeons by
any means; featuring synth-driv-

The question is, who will finish first?

Picket fences are so last year.
a fitting foundation for Krauss's
combative presence before she
reverts back to her softer side,
gently crooningher waythrough
the chorus.
The back and forth of subtlety
and aggression laid out on the
opening track proves to be the
recurring theme of the album.
"Sing Like a Wire" starts out
with a simple beat as Krauss
softly sings, "static in the sen-
tence, static in the dirt." When
she finally bursts into the cho-
rus yelling, "Sing like a wire!"
it doesn't go unnoticed. These
captivating contrasts give Bitter
Rivals peaks of varying interest
and moments of surprise, ensur-
ing that no one's attention can
stray far from the album for too
long.
Bitter Rivals also marks the
most melodic shift forward for
the group, with genuinely sing-
able tracks like "Young Leg-
ends" and "Tiger Kit," both of
which show off Krauss's vocal
abilities outside of yelling on

top of the hyper-intense bevy
of instruments. This simplicity
may be due in part to Andrew
Dawson, who mixed the album
and also served as the engineer
for Kanye West's Yeezus earlier
this year - which was noted for
its own stripped-down sound.
The sing-along style of both of
these tracks offers a played-
-down version to the typical
noise-pop genre. Instead, they
explore a refreshing sound
to what the group seemed to
become accustomed to on Reign
of Terror, which came off as too
hyped up for any substance to
shine through.
While Bitter Rivals doesn't
mark a complete departure for
Sleigh Bells, it further proves
that all bands that get classi-
fied under some unintentionally
hilarious subgenre deserve the
flak we'd assume based solely
on the moniker. If anything, the
band proves noise pop is a genre
all its own, and one to be reck-
oned with, at that.

en popj
demons
soundtt
craving
everyth
'Sp
an
You
"Ferris
movesp
and loo
you cou
of The S
fast -
fast. D<
attempt
and ask
The
in the,
shimme
ally, all
But asa
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twang-}
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music, The Speed of Things equation, The Speed of Things will
trates itself as the perfect work its magic oi you, serving as
rack for our generation's the soundtrack for daytime occa-
for everything faster, sions and lingering into the night-
ing bigger. time, too. And even if this isn't
your cup of tea, you'd still have to
try to dislike this album.
1ed' through Though it's only the band's
second album, Dale Earnhardt
easy listen. Jr. Jr. has mastered the art of syn-
thesized pop. Synthesized arpeg-
gios, guitar riffs and dizzying
synthesizer melodies (everything
know that quote from sandwiched in synths) accom-
Bueller's Day Off"? "Life pany fairly standard electro-pop
pretty fast. if you don't stop vocals on all 13 tracks. Songs like
k around once in a while, '"Beautiful Dream," "If You Didn't
id miss it." That's the crux See Me (Then You Weren't On the.
peed of Things. Life moves Dancefloor)" and "Run" hasten
things, in general, move your pulse as Zott and Epstein
ale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. has sing, "You're supposed / to see
tedtostop and lookaround your age rewind." This idea of
s us to do the same. looking back to the past, embrac-
band passes on wisdom ing the present and considering
form of adages sung over the future dances its way through
ering electro pop. Gener- the remainder of the album.
the tracks sound nuanced. While the group follows a
rule, they follow a simple straight line to wonderfully
at layered synths (some devised electro pop, Dale Earn-
y, some chiming) and hardt Jr. Jr. dabbles in different
cergy drumming, with the styles of presenting its sound.
nal guitar. If you like this "Dark Water" bears resemblances

WARNER BROS.
to Andrew Bird, featuring whis-
tling, bizarre percussion and
whirling'vocals. "Run," on the
other hand, has perky synths and
sounds like vocalist Nate Ruess of
the band fun.
For two low-key guys who
started off making basement-
studio recordings in Royal Oak,
Mich., a high-profile stream-
ing in The New York Times and
a backing from Warner Bros.
Records must seem like a dream.
Zott and Epstein evoke this sur-
real wistfulness in the album.
The spinning world around them
has proven to be effective music
for effervescent electro pop.
In The Speed of Things, Dale
Earnhardt Jr. Jr. has nailed the
idea of electronic landscapes
worth an easy listen. The synth-
based arrangements and dance-
based beats sound effortless.
Yet, even in relaxed songs, like
"Mesopotamia" and "Gloria,"
the peculiar percussion and scat-
terbrained synths will grab you
by the shoulders, shake you and
make you feel nostalgic for days
when the speed of things wasn't
so damn fast.

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