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5. Massive Black: “L Dopa”
Steve Albini’s punk-electronic band Massive Black revved up a relentless drum machine behind ferociously noisy guitars — a favourite Sleigh Bells tactic. The narrator of “L Dopa” is a affected person with sleeping illness, unwillingly woke up by the drug L Dopa — and livid about it.
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6. Sleigh Bells: “Locust Laced”
“I really feel like dynamite / I really feel like dying tonight,” Krauss sings over buoyant handclaps in “Locust Laced,” from the 2021 album “Texis.” The track bristles with dichotomies. Miller’s guitars are all pace and muscle, delivering machine-gun bursts of rhythm chords and zooming glissandos. However the verses embody pleas like “Crush my destiny I’m dropping breath / Ship me an angel of dying.”
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7. Sleigh Bells: “Lightning Turns Sawdust Gold”
Electronics, not guitars, dominate this determined love track from Sleigh Bells’ 2016 album, “Jessica Rabbit.” In an unlimited, heaving, artificial soundscape, Krauss pushes her voice till it breaks, and he or she pleads, “Take a deep breath earlier than you do one thing drastic.” In the beginning and close to the tip, there’s sobbing within the combine, abandoning any chipper facade.
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8. Illuminati Hotties that includes Cavetown: “Didn’t”
Sarah Tudzin, the songwriter and producer behind Illuminati Hotties, revels (like Sleigh Bells) in quick-change dynamics: a quiet uncovered sound adopted by a full-spectrum assault, a diffident verse exploding into a giant refrain. “Didn’t” — with a visitor verse from Cavetown (Robin Daniel Skinner) — jumps between breathy insecurities and defiant, power-chorded renunciation: “What if I simply didn’t do it?”
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9. Beck: “Lady”
Beck has been knocking collectively genres for the reason that Nineteen Nineties. “Lady,” from his 2005 album “Guero,” opens with a sound Sleigh Bells have additionally featured: chiptunes, paying homage to the low-resolution tunes performed by the primitive circuits constructed into hand-held video video games. With slide guitar including a country contact, “Lady” turns right into a bouncy folk-rock track which may sound downright affectionate — besides that the narrator is planning the woman’s homicide.
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10. 100 gecs: “Dumbest Lady Alive”
100 gecs — the duo of Dylan Brady and Laura Les — are deadpan hyperpop specialists; they crash-test all types of sounds and high them with sardonic, absurd lyrics. “Dumbest Lady Alive” is stuffed with fake-outs: a grandiose digital intro punctured by gunshots, a distorted guitar riff that generally has a observe changed by chiptune blips. Then, over a ticking drum-machine beat and a blotchy digital bass line, Les sings — computer-tweaked in fact — about how “I all the time get it mistaken.” For 2 minutes and 6 seconds, the slapstick timing is impeccable.