I won't try to play it cool - Passion Pit are a band from Boston that sound like the Frankenstein of most of my favorite bands stitched together. They've got the shouty/synthy edge of MGMT, the perfect choruses of Phoenix, and seriously bombastic production dreamed up by Hot Chip, Chromeo, and Ratatat after days of pounding Beverly Hills Cop. Then, because apparently that's not ambitious enough, they brought in a Staten Island Children's Choir to add backup vocals. The culmulative effect of all this cutting and pasting is impossible describe, except to say that I've never heard a band that can both glitter and stomp at the same time like they can.
Clearly Passion Pit aim to overwhelm, and "Manners" is an album custom-built for that purpose. Like the first time you heard Justice or Animal Collective, there's so many new ideas going on here that it drowns your brain. And while the first spin through the CD brought me to a level of musical intoxication I haven't experienced in awhile, you can only be overwhelmed so many times before it becomes grating. Will it reach that point? Unfortunately that's probably the fate of music this accessible and this well-constructed - it's just too needy. For now, though, "Manners" is the summer album to beat (and "Little Secrets" is THE JAM).
1 comment:
Nice use of bombastic. Your description is what I would dream up if I were making my perfect band. I could not be more excited to download this album.
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