Sledgehammer-pop duo Sleigh Bells visited the BBC recently, and as one tends to do when one visits the hallowed British broadcasting institution, they laid down a cover—of Beyoncé's breezy kiss-off "Irreplaceable." The combined moxie of Beyoncé and Sleigh Bells frontwoman Alexis Krauss should result in fireworks, right? Well, not so much; Krauss sighs her way through the song, turning her voice into a mew that sounds like she was trying to sing along with the radio while not being heard by her roommates or anyone else outside of a six-inch radius. (Also, some of the guitar chords are a bit off.) It's not Karmin-level offensive, but it's sorta disappointing. Listen below.

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Today is Groundhog Day, and while rodents on the East Coast are split on whether or not 2012 will actually see something resembling winter around these parts, one thing's for sure: People will probably watch the 1993 Harold Ramis-directed Bill Murray vehicle Groundhog Day, in which the comedian plays a weatherman resigned to relive February 2 over and over and over again until he learns how to be less of a jerk, and, by extension, more OK with himself and the people around him. (It's airing on CMT tonight, in case you were wondering.) In the film, the February 2 that Murray's Phil Connors is stuck inside opens with Sonny and Cher's 1965 chart-topper "I Got You, Babe," which hits its sweetly sappy chorus just as Connor's clock radio flips from 5:59 a.m. to 6:00. This got me thinking: If I was trapped in an existential purgatory that made me have to relive one day until I got a valuable life lesson about myself and the world around me through my thick skull, what song would I be OK with as far as a day-opening jam, albeit one that reminded me of being utterly trapped? Six candidates below. Feel free to nominate yours in the comments!

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Last night at midnight—just like the old days!—the new single from Bruce Springsteen, "We Take Care Of Our Own," premiered on the radio—just like the, oh, you know. The song, taken from Springsteen's forthcoming Wrecking Ball (out March 6), is a slow-build, string-spangled anthem that belies the Boss's recent time spent hanging around the Arcade Fire, while also . Call it "The Girls In The Suburbs' Clothes," maybe? Listen below.

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2012: The Year Of More Sleigh Bells.

In this week's Voice I outline my music-related resolutions for the coming year, most of which involve getting away from the Internet in some fashion—avoiding toxic comment sections, realizing that the cloud's completeness is completely illusory, being better about listening to music that was released in 2012 instead of falling down the always-tempting retro rabbit holes that pucker the online-music world like a particularly persistent acne outbreak. (Also, I pledge to be nice to Katy Perry.) After reading the headlines this morning I might add caring about what overly self-important musicians have to say about "uncool" members of their field, thus turning the music-news world into a professional-wrestling scrum where all the promos are varying levels of excruciating, to that list. But I want to know: What are your own listening-related resolutions for the coming 361 and a half-ish days? Comment away; below are a few tracks from 2012 releases of note to accompany your forward-thinkingness.

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9. Hinder, "Born To Be Wild"

8. Lana Del Rey, "Born To Die"

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The distorto-pop duo Sleigh Bells' second album Reign Of Terror will be out next year, and the first single has dropped: It's called "Born To Lose," it veers between being absolutely pummeling and losing itself in dream-pop chime, and it has a blown-out guitar solo that sounds like a chorus of video-game consoles on the march for the purposes of reclaiming music for the forces of—well, if not good, at least liveliness. A stream of the track, which premiered today in the UK (via Spin), is below.

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Normally I am not too into the idea of the "album trailer"—just put out a song, jeeeez—but the trailer for the second album by the always-maxing-out-the-sound-system duo Sleigh Bells, called Reign In Terror, is too good—a thrashy loop that I could, truth be told, probably listen to for a much longer time than the trailer's 2:25 length running under footage of Alexis Krauss outfitted like HIStory-era Michael Jackson and somberly fixing her glossy hair, which is intercut with various bits of home movies that date all the way back to the camcorder era. The only thing missing from the video, really, is a release date. Anyone? Anyone? [Via]

Here is a list of artists who have endorsed or collaborated with the gloriously monikered Theophilus London: M.I.A.; TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek; Sleigh Bells; Sara Quin from Tegan and Sara; John Hill of Santigold production repute; and one-time Jealous Girlfriends member Holly Miranda. Not, then, the usual cast list of supporters drafted in to help propel a young rapper up from out of the mixtape circuit and into the major rap leagues. But a spin of Timez Are Weird These Days, the Brooklyn-based rap fop's debut studio album, reveals that to be the idea: He's a rapper, but he doesn't seem particularly bothered about cultivating rap fans.

Timez Are Weird These Days might be grounded in the basic idea that it's a collection of songs that employ rapped lyrics as the main vocal delivery, but its production, grooves, and ultimate ambitions aim elsewhere. At times it's music for a hip party, like the fuzzy, smutty funk of "Girls Girls $." At others, London is swanking around like he's draped in Diddy money, talking about becoming smitten with a "disco queen" that he runs into while hitting up a city's "bistro scene" ("Love Is Real"). London's songs usually push in a pop direction, too: Skipping over the actual rapping part, "I Stand Alone," with its defiantly motivational chorus, does a decent impression of an Eagle Eye Cherry ditty; lead single "Why Even Try" and "Lighthouse" sound like he missed his calling as an '80s pop-rapper. (If only London had Diddy's budget—he could rap over Duran Duran!)

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Well, OK, the murder actually only goes one way here: delightful frontlady Alexis Krauss (spoiler alert?) chucks guitarist Derek Miller from a moving car, thus fulfilling a tour fantasy that anyone who has ever been in a band has had. Also featured: killer yearbook photos and satanic locker altars that play on Krauss's schoolteacher past; a phone with blood coming out of it. And though it's sort of been obvious for a while now, we'll go ahead and say the most significant thing about this very high production video (directed by John Watts) is that they shot it for "Rill Rill," the sweetest and most dazed track on last year's Treats. If you want to know what this duo's next record is gonna sound like, our money's right here. Watch the video below:

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Naturally, this dude is involved

Distilling a full year of furtive, easily distracted, constantly overwhelmed listening down to a mere 10 albums is a ridiculous, agonizing, thoroughly loathsome undertaking, and yet here we all are, pulling nine fully formed sonic universes together and capping it off with My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, because that's what we all did in 2010. Try Warpaint's morose "Undertow" when you want to feel sorry for yourself, Sleigh Bells' spectacularly violent "Straight A's" when you want to feel sorry for whoever you're about to punch in the face, and the morosely spectacular "Runaway" when you want to feel sorry for, well, Kanye. This was my year, with all the distractions finally, mercifully filtered out.

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