Passion Pit
Manners
French Kiss/Columbia
By David Chiu
Passion Pit seems to wear ‘80s electronic dance pop music heavily on their sleeves. Nearly every track on their album Manners seems to evoke the best of synthpop music from that decade, such as in “Little Secrets,” which is reminiscent of Scritti Politti; and “The Reeling,” which sounds like an old school track that a DJ would have played at an ‘80s New York nightclub. Manners is essentially collection of whimsical pop songs (“Moth’s Wings,” “Sleepyhead”) with the occasional slow jam (the seductive “Swimming in the Flood”). But Passion Pit forges its own identity partly due to the fact of Michael Angelakos’ soaring high-pitched vocals, especially on the opening track “Make Light,” and his impressionistic and almost angstful lyrics. (Think of Prefab Sprout with synthesizers). Manners is not your typical electropop album, yet you can’t help but feeling uplifted and good upon listening to this.
NewBeats 