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Passion Pit
Manners
Frenchkiss Records
Out May 19th
[85]
[Rating Scale]
[rating:85/100]
The way I see it, Passion Pit is like the friend you have who’s always excited about everything. When he talks to you about something, you can’t help but get really excited about it too. But at the same point you’re worried about spending more than about 30 minutes with him, since that much undiluted enthusiasm just makes you go bonkers.
Such were my fears going into Manners. I had been spinning the Chunk Of Change EP for months – the setlist from the EP release show is hanging on my bedroom wall (no big deal). I’ve seen them 3 times live (highly recommended) and am pumped to catch them next time they’re in Boston in June. Each time they performed, the set was tight – six or seven songs packed into a half hour set that cranked it up to 11. I loved every song on the EP and thought there was no way that the band’s first album could come close to the standard that had been set. I set my expectations low, ready for disappointment.
And then something kinda crazy happened. Manners didn’t disappoint. It was pretty good. In fact, it was really good – in the rare way that wins you over on first listen and convinces you more and more every successive spin. Passion Pit called me a fool, opened my eyes a bit, and transformed from a hyped band to a good band.
You see, Chunk of Change was all about energy. It was about compressing music into a ball and then bouncing it. Manners is about unraveling that ball to see what it’s made of.
When I first heard Passion Pit last year, I couldn’t believe my ears. I described them to a friend as “everything I like about music in a single band”. I tried to compare them to other artists, and failed miserably – the best I could do was “Hot Chip meets Dan Deacon meets Animal Collective meets Jackson 5”. Yep, that’s about as well as they can be summed up; unique, to say the least.
Unique, however, is not always a positive modifier, despite my own predilections. A few weeks ago I played Passion Pit’s standout hit “Sleepyhead” for a friend, hoping to induce a similar euphoria to the one I experienced the first time it rocked my eardrums. His response: “What’s wrong with the dude’s voice?” I can’t really blame him.
Because you can’t talk about Passion Pit without mentioning Michael Angelakos, and you can’t really talk about Angelakos without talking about his voice. It’s high pitched and occasionally distracting. It’s also the backbone of the band. To those who would argue Angelakos’ pipes are a detriment to a good band, I’d invite you to check out Bob Dylan, Dirty Projectors, White Stripes, Mountain Goats and other amazing bands that capitalize on their off-beat leads.
It definitely sounds like the Angelakos inhaled a bunch of helium before laying down the tracks on Manners. Fittingly, though, it often sounds like the synths inhaled some of the same supply – Passion Pit captures a raw energy and enthusiasm by taking good music and keying it up to make it great. When tracks on Manners really keep up this emotion, like a record spun at too high a speed, they shine. Elsewhere, however, the album feels…well…measured. Restrained. Angelakos’ chords are tearing at whatever’s binding him, but aren’t quite strong enough. Songs like “Eyes As Candles” seem begging to bump the tempo up a notch and really rip. Instead they pace along, enjoyable but not joyful.
That being said, the album’s first four tracks are as good as any album released in the past year. Opener “Make Light” shows a familiar side of the band – a steady drumbeat, ebullient falsetto, big hits and scaling synths. It’s a welcome intro that assures fans that some things aren’t going to change. (And, sidenote, in concert it melts faces). “Little Secrets”, the album’s second track, starts off in a similar vein, shaking up the same ingredients, changing melodies and adding a chorus of New York Public School kids to give it a bigger feeling. It’s catchy and the chorus works well to differentiate it from Passion Pit jams past. At the end of track two, though, it’s tough not to have a fleeting thought – there are 11 tracks of this?
Then “Moth’s Wings” comes on. The song develops gradually, which is a new maneuver for Passion Pit. Rather than bursting out of the gate a full speed, the track starts slowly, building bit by bit in both speed and volume until it reaches its destination solidly in the center of your skull. It is Passion Pit at their most lush, slowed but still passionate (yes, passionate). Although it may not be as catchy as “Sleepyhead”, “Moth’s Wings” shows more promise. It suggests that Passion Pit can exist without falsettos and bouncy synths. That they could be more than a musical fad. That this band could actually make it.
Whatever that means.
After “Moth’s Wings” it’s back to synthy deliciousness on “The Reeling”, a song which makes a lot more sense in the context of Manners than it did when it hit HypeMachine on its own a couple months back. The stuttering beginning grabs your attention back from the daze you drifted off into so that the drums can get you bouncing again. “The Reeling” closes the four-song opener well, and finishes setting the tone for the whole album.
The rest of the album is good, if not particularly mind-blowing. The tracks are pleasant and grow on you with every listen, but aren’t the type of songs you’d write home about. There are bits and pieces that stick – a riff here, a lyric there – but the songs on the whole are fairly standard Passion Pit fare.
In fact, that sentiment can be applied to the entire album. Manners is a good album, bordering on great. But it’s mainly great because of what it leaves unsaid, hinting toward the future. Chunk of Change had an urgent cause; it needed to snap fingers in faces to get attention for a band that desperately deserves it. Manners is consciously more tempered. We’ve asked Passion Pit to come to dinner and they’re in no hurry to give it all away on the first date.
Manners is a compilation of possible beginnings – Passion Pit’s next album could be full of breakbeats and synths (“Make Light”), full of lush layers (“Moth’s Wings”), full of contemporary Beach Boys (“Let Your Love Grow Tail”), or full of hipster lullabies (“Swimming In The Flood”). All of those styles are on display here, and they all hold up pretty darn well. Consequently, Manners is simultaneously cohesive, disjointed, and utterly listenable. It suffers from a bit of an identity crisis, but in the same way that a toddler might, trying to find where exactly the boundaries are.
Listening to Manners is a bit like watching a child’s first steps – the band holds itself up, smiling the whole time, but Passion Pit still has some learning to do before they can really run. Still, these are confident first strides, and I’m excited to see where they’re headed.
You’ve been listening to the album for days and now you’ve read our review — what are your thoughts on the album? On Passion Pit in general?
Chris Barth writes a weekly Thinking Man feature here at Pretty Much Amazing and now he’s trying to review albums. You can read his more succinct daily entries at his blog, The Stu Reid Experiment.
To enter to win a copy of Passion Pit’s Manners, leave a comment with your thoughts on the album. Make sure you leave your name/email address in the provided fields! Entries will be accepted until May 20th
Tags: Favorite New Albums, Passion Pit
Like this album a lot. The opening moments of Little Secrets are quite pretty.
cannot stop listening to it, it definitely surpassed my expectations; tenfold.
Love the album and it has been in constant rotation…now learning to love all the songs, not the just the first listen favorites. Good review.
Luis – I think your light bulb’s not-lit-up side needs to be lighter, or even the blue non-lit color to emphasize the 1/2 bulb. Also, can you keep that scale legend somewhere handy to reference? I don’t remember which entry I saw it. Thanks!
The trailing chorus on Little Secrets is damn near impossible not to sing along to. Fantastic album overall
To Kingdom Come is my current jam. That chorus is contagious.
As for Manners, its a tad too over produced in some areas.
Btw, those hardcore chunk for change guys are only ripping into Manners because they know Passion Pit is going to be huge so they hate on them because its a ‘cool’ thing to do.
@Diane: oops! thanks for reminding me about the scale.. I’ve attached it to the bottom of the review, for reference.
Damn good album. I’m kinda embarrassed to love music from a guy that sings like a girl on helium. Completely different from what I usually listen to but it’s just so addictive.
Any else find Little Secrets to be extremely catchy?
Overall a very strong album in my opinion. Very catchy and fun to listen to while still maintaining a rich, quality sound. Also, I think Little Secrets might be the best song I’ve heard all year…
A fun album, and it really makes me want to go see them live (they come to a city near me June 4th!). I can’t wait to actually buy the physical album though. A lot of bands disappoint on their first album after a great EP, but this was not the case with Passion Pit, the debut was just as good as the Chunk of Change EP.
Best new group of the year… http://www.eardrumspop.blogspot.com/
A truly excellent album! One of the best albums I have heard all year, and there have been some really good ones so far. Personal favorite tracks are Moth’s Wings, Make Light, Seaweed Song, and of course Little Secrets. After listening to this album and their EP, I just can’t wait to see them in concert next weekend.
I love it for the 15 minutes it grabs me, but then trail off in attention. Best in small doses.
Fucking awesome.
I♥THEM !
It’s one of my most amazing discoveries of 2009, they are way beyond awesome. I keep burning CDs for every car I’m sitting in for more than 15 minutes. Gonna spread the sound *g Well, amazing, can’t say more.
I love their sound. I thought “Sleepyhead” might be a fluke, but “Little Secret” is even stronger to me so I’m really excited to see how their sound develops with time. They’re very bright and fresh right now so I wonder if they’ll mellow out or go more experimental. They go in a lot of unusual directions. It’s sort of indie pop with a twist. Love it.
couldn’t wait for their second album after chunk of change.
i could listen to little secrets for days on repeat…
love passion pit, hometown pride!
LOVE Sleepyhead. Played it everyday for the past couple of weeks. The Chunk of Change EP was pretty good overall, but I guess the only other song I really listened to was Cuddle Fuddle , shelving the other songs after hearing them twice. Kinda excited for this new album, Passion Pit is one of my favorite newest artists!
Fell in love with these guys after I downloaded Sleepyhead (saw the PSP commerical). The EP got me pretty psyched but the album is killer. Only It’s Blitz and Manners have been able to get me so psyched this year re: the music scene.
Passion Pit is clearly going to break out into the world with this release. The album is amazing on all levels. Manners is a gift to our ears. This carefully crafted album has extremely powerful and meaningful lyrics. Michael Angelakos is a genius, and his voice is amazing. Some may argue that it is repetitive and annoying, but it makes me go wild.
From start to finish Mike proves that his band is not one that was over-hyped and then let down everyone with their debut LP. It is remarkable. Although The Reeling was chosen as the single, there are many songs that could fit as the single. Little Secrets is clearly one of them, but not close behind is To Kingdom Come which is followed by Moth’s Wings. Each song is unique in its own way and each song could easily be pumped through the airwaves throughout the entire summer.
I didn’t think I would find every song as great as they are. I thought there was going to be a few duds. Turns out I was wrong. Right off the bat, the album explodes into you. It doesn’t decline at any point. There are constant tracks coming right at you, every single one you could jump out of your chair and dance and sing-a-long to.
Manners is an experience everyone needs to have. It is carefully crafted and made to perfection. Layers of synths, children choirs and Mike’s high pitch falsetto vocals all fall directly in the right place.
If Passion Pit doesn’t get any bigger with this release, then I don’t know what can anymore.
I am extremely curious to see how the band adapts each of the tracks on Manners in front of a live audience. I, for one, will be waiting for the day that I get the gift to see them live.
Since I discovered this band last summer, I have been anticipating this day for their debut album. And many months later, here it is. The album will be banging throughout my house, car, where ever I go for a while.
I believe that Manners is an early candidate for album of 2009 and I really think it can be.
I have been anticipating the day of May 19th, but not because it’s my brother’s birthday. Passion Pit’s album’s drops that day, and what a glorious day it will be.
Thanks to last.fm, I gave this band a listen. Their ep was amazing with songs that I would play on repeat like ‘Better Things.’ But from the songs I’ve heard off of their new album, ‘Manners’ may even be better than their last release.
I was disappointed when I missed their performance in my town last fall, but I’ll make sure that will never happen again because this band is stellar.
The first time I listened to this album reminded me of the first time I listened to Jukebox the Ghost’s album, especially the way I could not stop listening to “Good Day” and “Hold it In”. I have certainly enjoyed the whole of this album more so than ‘Let Lives & Let Ghosts’ and can’t help but smile every time I listen to it.
I’m smiling just thinking about it.
It took me a while to get into them, but I’d heard the hype and slowly feel in love with Sleepyhead.
Now that Manners is almost out I can firmly say I love the band and can’t wait to see them live. It’s nice to see they’re growing and exploring new instruments and sounds rather than just sticking with the old.
Great album and great band!
I really am looking forward to this cd, I’m not going to download it though… I going to wait for it to come out in store to listen…
New: Passion Pit “Manners” MP3 Album downloads for $3
Today only 5/19, the Amazon MP3 Store offers downloads of Passion Pit’s Manners for $2.99. That’s the best deal we could find for this 11-track, DRM-free album, released today. (lala.com charges $3.99; iTunes $9.99.) Amazon MP3 Downloader is required. Here’s link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0027D4ADG/?&tag=Priceg499-20
in the end
its.. well
Pretty Much Amazing!
Passion Pit’s vocals and energy is so high. Little Secrets is my favourite of the ones I have heard so far. Bands who stream their whole albums on Myspace or whatever are great, giving us a nice legal way to try before we buy.
Fantastic review of a fantastic record. Check out my review for Manners @ Audio Bounty | http://www.audiobounty.com/?p=249
I’ve gotta say that I wrote this record off after the first listen, which was hugely disappointing because I loved the EP. But, I gave the record another chance and was hooked immediately upon the second listen. Now, I’ve been listening to it on repeat all week. Love this album!
I’M great fan of Passion Pit’s. Thanks for the quality post