Weekly Album Review: Passion Pit – Manners
Written by pistachionut on Thursday, 21 of May , 2009 at 6:22 pm
There’s always a problem with bands having full length debuts not living up to their first EPs. The list is long…
Tokyo Police Club
Ra Ra Riot
The Death Set
Los Campesionos
Born Ruffians
The Little Ones
There are rare cases where bands succeed and the debut album goes far and beyond the first EP… (feel free to comment and add to these lists, it’s a topic I love discussing)
Fleet Foxes
Arcade Fire
No Age (Weirdo Rippers was two EPs, it counts)
…and now Passion Pit
Manners is everything it’s cracked up to be. As a follow-up to last year’s Chunk of Change EP, it moves away from samples and into more intricate, keyboard-driven melodies. The band has a bevy of keyboards and synths (they take 8 out on tour) and they use them to every advantage. Each song is thick and layered, but never feels too cluttered. The album starts with “Make Light,” an epic jam with vocals upon vocals upon vocals. The synthline is reminiscent of “Sleepyhead” but not too close that it’s a problem. But from the beginning of the album, they really establish a unique sound. They do this style of music one better than everyone else. “Little Secrets” makes incredible use of the PS 122 choir, breaking down into a synthline and building into verse two. The next song is my favorite – “Moth’s Wings.” Prime the ending montage of a teen soap, (Alex Patsavos, come on) this song demonstrates Angelakos’ incredible vocal range. It’s also the first time the band has used a plain piano. Everything else is so synth heavy that when a piano riff breaks through it’s a glorious moment. “The Reeling” is equally epic as the three previous songs, with a big synthline at the beginning building into a humongous chorus. Once again the PS 122 choir saves the day, taking the song to an entirely new level of glee.”To Kingdom Come” is another favorite. It’s Passion Pit at their best: synth strings, a syncopated synthline and a falsetto chorus. If the album were to end right there, you’d have a 5 song EP worthy of the gods. Nothing else on the album quite matches those five songs, spare the album version of “Sleepyhead,” which is a cleaned up and edited version of the original. “Let Your Love Grow Tall” again utilizes the choir, and the breakdown might end up being the most amazing moment on the album. With the kids singing the title lyric above a filtered synth. It’s great. Passion Pit has captured their major traits on Manners and played them out to their fullest. A job extremely well done.
Passion Pit – Sleepyhead (Album Version)
Comments (4)
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Comment by alan
Made Friday, 22 of May , 2009 at 3:35 pm
i agree – a beautiful album you can listen to over and over again. actually its one of the few that i went out and invested in. wanted my own copy!
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Made Monday, 25 of May , 2009 at 7:49 pm
[...] 3. Passion Pit – Moth’s Wings [...]
Comment by Doug
Made Wednesday, 27 of May , 2009 at 12:54 pm
You are absolutely crazy if you think the debut albums from Fleet Foxes, Los Campesinos! and Tokyo Police Club were failures. Listen to Elephant Shell again maybe. And you DEF need to listen to Fleet Foxes again. Manners does some things well and I think its a great summer listen but some of it is trite at the same time. I am always disappointed when the best song on an album is from the EP (see Sleepyhead).
Comment by pistachionut
Made Wednesday, 27 of May , 2009 at 1:54 pm
i’m not saying by any means that the debuts from those bands are bad. i love them all. i just love the EPs more.
