Your Personal Soundtrack: Passion Pit - Manners
For all the railing against hipsters and the meta culture of the past few years, there are a few great things that have come from our current obsession with past aesthetics. "Retro" gaming has breathed new life into old gameplay tropes, games like bit.trip beat and Mega Man 9 show that just because it looks like it's from the 80's doesn't mean it's old or dated, it's just a different aesthetic. A chosen, purposeful aesthetic. I've heard complaints that there's no new ideas being generated in art these days; that we've done it all and now we're cannibalizing ourselves and perverting existing works. I blame the movie industry and the obsession with remakes and sequels. With music, it's a bit different. Many artists are just taking certain sounds and moods that make them happy, and shaping them into a new and refreshing product. Enter Passion Pit.
In 2008, Passion Pit released their first EP, Chunk of Change. The first four tracks on that album were made by lead vocalist Michael Angelakos as a gift to his girlfriend at the time, and it shows. The tracks are lovingly crafted and the EP showed great potential. Manners feels like a logical progression from Chunk of Change, building on the retro-synth and Angelakos' wailing vocals into a swirling vortex of pure joy, without ever feeling saccharine.
Manners is just that: a joyful album. Angelakos has obviously been influenced by sounds from his youth that made him happy. A little bit of Tears for Fears here, a little bit of Bee Gees there with a dash of... Mega Man? As a matter of fact, most of Manners feels like it could be from the lost Mega Man soundtrack with it's catchy hooks and driving melodies. It's bubbly and full of energy, while never feeling fake or put-on. In this current meta-culture - stinky with hipsters and their thick colorful sunglasses and co-opted (read: questionable) fashion choices - it's all about consumption. Chew up one trend, spit it out to prepare for the next one. Passion Pit transcends this perversion and becomes something entirely new.
Standout tracks like The Reeling (above) and Little Secrets show depth both in their lyrics and their production, without ever feeling manufactured. It's an authentic joy that Angelakos takes in his music, and history shows that if the artist puts his heart and soul into his work, the end product is better for it. Personally, I can't stop listening to it. I fall asleep with Passion Pit stuck in my head, and I wake up with Passion Pit stuck in my head. It's not often that an album comes along and inspires me to play it over and over and over again, usually I'm afraid of wearing it out. Manners reveals layers the more I listen to it, and the pure joy of Passion Pit inspires me in the way few albums do.
Sure, you could compare them to other recent synth-heavy indie pop bands like MGMT and just calling the sound a fad, but you'd be selling Passion Pit short. Railing against the current rash of hipster culture is one thing, but if you write them off just because they sound like a retro revival you'd be missing out on what is one of the best albums of 2009. Full of emotion and joy and brilliance.
look at me oh look at me is this the way i'll always be
oh no, oh no
