Passion Pit Review

Passion Pit was one of the best discoveries of 2009 for me. And I believe many others—I bet I can form a little legion of Passion Pit followers almost instantaneously with a few text messages. The best part is that the hype is not quite overrated (Merriweather Post Pavillion, tsk tsk).

I don’t know whether starting from scratch helps forming a sheer and unbiased (or should I say totally biased? It’s my uninfluenced opinion, after all) conception of an album. Assuming this is true, I say the album is pretty much amazing. Its appeal does not lie in its genre, lyrics, or sound. Manners appeals to everyone. From a compulsive Pitchfork follower like myself to a Lady GaGa lover, Manners has its moments.

To start off, Passion Pit does electronica. Yes, it is an awfully broad definition for a genre. I will do my best describing it. It’s not heavily ambient at all, so do NOT expect something like Aphex Twin (you would have figured this when I said a Lady GaGa fan would like this). One opinion of mine that will probably bring contention from the majority is that there is something is common between Manners and Sigur Rós. Furthering this analogy, I don’t think as many people would object that Passion Pit is the extremely poppier and synthesized version of Animal Collective (go listen to Lion in a Coma). The whole album relies heavily on synthesizers which give it the dance floor touch. I am no expert in musical instruments, but I hardly hear any acoustic sound in this album. I am also pretty sure the beats are done on a drum machine, which certainly is not always bad. One thing I never bothered to figure out is whether the guys distort the vocals which sound like kids. The distorted (or not) vocals do pose an obstacle in my understanding of the lyrics, so I will skip lyrical analysis. Not that it matters much these days.

I figured track-by-track analyses are not the best way to write reviews, but I will study two of my favorite tracks: “The Reeling” and “Sleepyhead”.

“The Reeling” is a catchy repetitive track. Many happen to associate repetitiveness with pop and therefore crap, but not when you find yourself listening to the track on repeat and find the song sitting on the top of your Last.fm top tracks stats. It is very addictive and has a sweet video as well. Like all other tracks in this album with the exception of maybe “Sleepyhead,” “The Reeling” has a danceable rhythm, although it does fall on the calm side of the album. It is one of the tracks in which the vocals are slightly more emphasized than the synth and all else.

“Sleepyhead” is recognizable as “that song from the Palm Pixie ad.” The irony is that this track is one of those which stick out of the album and is distinguishable from the rest of the album which is pretty much the most cohesive I’ve encountered in a while. The creepy vocals is the beauty of “Sleepyhead.” I feel like I would appreciate it much if I could hear the lyrics but the song is incomprehensible.

However, Manners could have done with a lot more variety within the album. When I discovered “Sleepyhead” was on the Palm commercial, I immediately texted my friend, who loves Manners as much as I do and plays “Little Secrets” all the time, because I thought “Sleepyhead” was “Little Secrets.” I gave up trying to memorize track names and distinguish them from each other a long while ago.

Passion Pit certainly generated an Album of the Year competitor with Manners (well, yes, 2009 is over, but whatever). I see much potential in it, and anticipation runs high for Passion Pit in the indie scene. Manners is, after all, more than promising enough.



I should probably not try to make excuses for bad writing, after all, this is my friggin' second language. Oh, and I gave this album a 8.6/10.