Sleigh Bells – Jessica Rabbit

The ideal word to describe Sleigh Bells’ music is “overwhelming”. And here let me remind you that overwhelming doesn’t mean bad. Brooklyn-based duo is able to create songs that you can’t and won’t stop playing, even though they give you headaches. Jessica Rabbit, Alexis Krauss’ and Derek Miller’s fourth effort, sort of proves that this statement is still valid, albeit it’s clear that something went wrong. So maybe this word should be replaced with “messy” now?

The problem with the album is that it’s unbelievably chaotic and happens to feature both, their finest and most pointless songs to date. At its best, Jessica Rabbit offers you brilliant and surprisingly really subtle cuts (Hyper Dark, I Can Only Stare), as well as, quite typical to Sleigh Bells, noisy and intense tracks (Rule Number One, I Can’t Stand You Anymore). At its worst however, the record makes you think that Krauss and Miller aren’t exactly sure what they are doing. There’s plenty of songs that blend three or even four different ideas or melodies and in result, everything feels forced. Throwing too many things at once isn’t unfortunately the only problem this record has. We can also find here a few unnecessary interludes (Torn Clean, Loyal For, I Know Not to Count on You), which don’t go anywhere, nor bring anything to the album.

Jessica Rabbit had so much potential. We all know what are Sleigh Bells capable of and this could have been an easy success. Instead, the duo took things too far, forgetting that sometimes less is more.

2.5 / 5
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