Passion Pit, the prize pony of Brooklyn-based Frenchkiss Records and the latest electropop hype sensation to come out of The Internet, USA, had their much pre-cummed about first album Manners drop today. The album, which has nobly survived an early web leak, is being hailed early on by other bloggers/critics/lovers as one the year's best. And yeah, it's good. Really good. Maybe not that good. But pretty damn good.
I first heard the Passion Pit song Sleepyhead (off their EP, Chunk of Change) when a friend showed it to me last October, who himself had got the track from his friend who called Sleepyhead the "new Electric Feel." I didn't really buy it, but I dug the song a lot, weird falsetto and all. Eight months later, and having run the playcount on Sleepyhead and Cuddle Fuddle into digital oblivion, the prophecy has been fulfilled and Passion Pit has matured into the summer buzz band of MGMT-ish proportions.
And rightly so, because what Passion Pit has done with Manners is shed some of the synthetic skin from their more palpably electronic EP and gone for something more organic, more accessible - without losing any of the endearing whimsy stuff. In fact, lead singer Michael Angelakos's falsetto may have regressed in age even further to the point where he sounds like the most adorable little robotic choirboy. The differences between Chunk of Change and Manners makes the disc scratch at the beginning of Sleepyhead so appropiate - without it, the huge kick drum and whirring electronics would feel out of place on this much more ambitious, deeper album.
What they've crafted here is a 10-track injection of childish euphoria straight to the mainline vein. Optimistic, upbeat, its an album that is at best as epicly hopeful as an Obama speech, and at worse as cheesy as the narration in a bad French romance. But even at its omelet du fromage cheesiest, you can't help but like it the same way your girlfriend liked your poetry in middle school.
Passion Pit - Little Secrets [mp3]
All in all, its nothing solid enough to call a classic -- besides a strong start (Make Light, Little Secrets) and solid climax (Folds in Your Hands, Eyes As Candles, Sleepyhead), the rest of the tracks sort of run together -- but considering this album had big shoes to fill with all the bloghype, it has filled those shoes quite impressively. And besides, all that extra toe space just shows that this bright-eyed band of kids has room to keep growing.
All in all, its nothing solid enough to call a classic -- besides a strong start (Make Light, Little Secrets) and solid climax (Folds in Your Hands, Eyes As Candles, Sleepyhead), the rest of the tracks sort of run together -- but considering this album had big shoes to fill with all the bloghype, it has filled those shoes quite impressively. And besides, all that extra toe space just shows that this bright-eyed band of kids has room to keep growing.
passion pit - manners
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