Boston's
Passion Pit, fronted by falsetto singer Michael Angelakos,
joined the ranks of the dance-pop revival with the
EP Chunk Of Change (2008), a love letter to his girlfriend
containing
I've Got Your Number
and
Sleepyhead, and with the album
Manners (Frenchkiss, 2009),
a parade of infectious refrains
alternatively reminiscent of the psych-pop the 1990s
(Make Light,
sung in an annoying falsetto
backed by creative vocal harmonies
against the robust jangling of the guitar
over a slightly irregular march-like drumbeat)
and of the danceable synth-pop of the 1980s (notably the exuberant
Little Secrets, although
hijacked by a convoluted backbeat and a mocking synthesizer,
and the fractured Fold In Your Hands),
but also creating original blends of the two
(the densely arranged, propulsive and swirling The Reeling,
the clownish fanfare of Sleepyhead, another multilayered
arrangement and his signature song).
Gossamer (Columbia, 2012) was shamelessly littered with filler, mostly
packed in the second half. The first half would have been a decent EP, framed
by the opposite extremes of the
cheerful Abba-esque pop of Carried Away
(by far the most memorable song here)
and the
sophisticated (and sleep-inducing) soul ballad Constant Conversations.
The happy Sixties continued to be a major inspiration on this generation,
as attested by the
marching It's Not My Fault I'm Happy,
the frenzied booming bubblegum novelty I'll Be Alright and the
catchy Take a Walk in a bombastic form of Merseybeat, although more original
ideas show up in
Mirrored Sea, a hysterical hybrid of Prince and the Pet Shop Boys.
The highlight of
Kindred (2015) is the solemn Lifted Up, basically a rewrite of
It's Not My Fault I'm Happy. The album is a good example of
the most predictable, derivative, unimaginative dance-pop around in that year.
Michael Angelakos partially redeemed himself on
Tremendous Sea of Love (2017) with the
stately hymn-like To the Other Side,
the ghostly wordless Enigma-like vignette Tremendous Sea of Love
and the gentle piano sonata For Sondra with fluttering new-age synth
lines .
His specialty remains languid pop-soul ballads like Hey K and
You Have the Right, basically a rewrite of Constant Conversations,
and he seems to stumble by accident on the
bombastic drum-machines of the catchy I'm Perfect
and the lively syncopated Indian-esque rhythm of Inner Dialogue.
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