Bunky Becky Birthday Boy: An Absurdly Fun Pop-Metal Triumph from Sleigh Bells

Whether you love them, hate them or never even heard of them: Sleigh Bells are something else. They now return with new album, Bunky Becky Birthday Boy.

Bursting onto the New York underground scene with their self titled EP in 2009, Derek Miller & Alexis Krauss thundered into the public eye with their bracing debut Treats in 2010, released on M.I.A’s NEET label. Since then they have pushed the  idea of pop music to its absolute limits: songs designed to be over the recommended decibels of listening, clipping metal riffs layered over cheerleader chant-like vocals and sampling Funkadelic on songs about high school delinquents. And that’s just the first album.  

17 years and 6 studio releases later, enter Bunky Becky Birthday Boy. A tribute to Krauss’ beloved pup Riz and her newborn son, an acceptance of life and death, along with being a love letter to the crunchy sound they’ve been pushing and pioneering for the past decade. To their credit; they’ve never sounded this self assured and confident. It’s an eclectic mix of 90’s rock/pop arrangements, with stadium-level riffs mixing catchy ear hooks in every corner (While still maintaining a signature absurdity only they could pull  off) .

Starting off with ‘Bunky Bop’, which chugs along with sparkling synths interspersed into it’s guitar work and punchy drums, with Krauss chiming in with a knockout of a hook that’s sure to be stuck in one’s head for the next week. A charming and barmy track  dedicated to the life of the unofficial third member of Sleigh Bells: Krauss’ dog Riz who sadly passed away earlier this year. “Days are tricks, nights are long. Here without you.” 

‘Wanna start a band?’ is one of the tracks that ponders on the longevity of the duo, with introspective verses referencing the question Miller posed to Krauss all those years ago.  This sonically is one of the tracks that feels like a direct evolution of their signature sound: come for the classic rowdiness, stay for the live drum instrumentation and expansive dream-pop elements.  

Lyrically, Bunky Becky is less direct and confessional than 2016’s Jessica Rabbit and 2021’s Texis, harkening back to the more open ended lyricism of 2012’s Reign of Terror,  but with a clear showcase of the knack these two have for writing strong hooks and  choruses. Some of these lines are so deliciously smooth and work in the essence of the  90’s influences and 60’s girl-group vocal styles they are clearly wearing on their sleeve. Bands with a bakers dozen worth of writers couldn’t come close to how addictive these hooks are.  

When they do get more personal, they play around with it. Take ‘Roxette Ric’ for example, they describe Roxette Ric as a friend for Bunky Becky (Krauss’s nickname for her pup). A play on the doubts of the sound of Sleigh Bells, a song for the naysayers. As it hits into the chorus, Bunky Becky states: “Roxette it's all you, your pop metal dream came true.” It feels like a perfect motto for a band who thought their album Texis was going to be the last. So of course the song electronically mutates Millers’s guitar work and then  dives into more traditional metal riffs only to snap right back to the sweetest melody possible.

The production is also immediately more refined and expansive than past works, sounding extremely crisp and expensive. Hardcore fans might be turned off by the lack of clipping and crunchiness in the mixing, but I find this sharp execution to be deliberate. Let's also not get this twisted. This is a Sleigh Bells album, so naturally the guitars let fucking rip. Their production has progressed beyond the same chugging riffs with blasted electronic drums and these new arrangement portray that very strongly. 

At times though, they seem to wear their influences on their sleeves a bit too prominently. Tracks like ‘Badly’ and ‘Blasted Shadows’ seem sonically similar with their pop punk and midwest inspiration, especially being sandwiched together on the track  listing. Compared to the rest of the album, that thunders along at such a brisk pace, these tracks almost feel like the breaks are being pushed. Thankfully the lyrical content, small twinkling flourishes of soundbites and references to past albums (The “Minneapolis!” shout on badly reminds me of True Shred Guitar) keep the tracks from being completely filler. Krauss’ vocals are the most commanding they’ve been since Jessica Rabbit, with her leaning into the old soul vibes of her voice. Imagine elements of Bonnie Raitt, The Shangri-Las and The Ronettes in a modern reworking, but still distinctly Krauss, and again it compliments the overall feeling this album is trying to emphasise. 

Take ‘Hi Someday’, which is easily one of the best songs of their career, barrels ahead with machine gun like drums and haunting melodies before completely switching up out of nowhere and starts to resemble a slasher movie soundtrack. ‘Real Special Cool Thing’ is their first official love song and again toes the line between a being sweeter than a lolly dipped in sugar and being bouncy enough to throw arms to in the mosh pit. ‘This Summer’, a Sleigh Bells take on a traditional summer hit, knows when to add those signature metal riffs and when to let the drums bounce in after some chilling verses.“You could roll an ankle out in the street, and your body explodes on impact.” 

The magnum opus of this album however, lies in its closer track, ‘Pulse Drips Quiet’. A gutsy stadium-filling anthem about perseverance in the face of fear, violence and uncertainty. The goosebumps I got first hearing Krauss belting the lines “Its safe to hold your breath, you can count on it!” as the guitar hits with a climactic progression was immense. This song, and the album overall feel like a commanding return to form for a band that have fought against a lot of flack to remain authentic in their sound. This still might not convince the people that dislike Sleigh Bells, but long-time fans and new comers will be brought around by its heart and enjoyable absurdity, with more complexity for those willing to explore. As Krauss herself says: “I’ll be true til death.”