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PASSION PIT – Gossamer (Columbia)

Everybody can find a reason not to like Passion Pit: "Dude sings in that stupid falsetto," "dude sold out," "dude, I don't like synth-pop, I've told you before," on and on, et cetera and et cetera. Passion Pit, for whatever reason, is not cool. Like a lot of bands that aren't cool, they've sold a hell of a lot of records and are very, very popular. But among keen circles of hip people in dank corners of the Internet, Passion Pit is a joke which provokes bile at the sound of their name. This hatred usually bypasses the typical guilty pleasure stage into full-on disgust. Why is everyone so keen on beating on PP?

But I digress… Gossamer, the band's second album, finds them within comfortable ground sonically but now using their music as a medium for serious introspection, conflict, and redemption. It's one of my favorite things about music: The use of rock and roll to absolve demons. The lyrics on Manners were fairly bleak and self-deprecating yet mostly passed under listeners’ radars. Since then, singer and lyricist Michael Angelakos has come out as bi-polar, making critical analysis of their lyrics a common practice. On standout single "I'll Be Alright" Angelakos yelps the title as a plea and as a chance for salvation; if he can sing it and believe it, then you can too. "Carried Away" is a hit waiting to happen (I'm truly shocked that it wasn't the single!) but the real highlight of the record is "On My Way," where Angelakos proposes and asks his future wife to "consecrate this messy love." It's another beautiful moment of hope in this dark record. The second half loses a little bit of the momentum, but I'd still call Gossamer a triumph, a full-bypass of the "sophmore slump," and a desperate and deserved cry to be taken seriously. – Layne Montgomery




 

 


JerseyBeat.com is an independently published music fanzine covering punk, alternative, ska, techno and garage music, focusing on New Jersey and the Tri-State area. For the past 25 years, the Jersey Beat music fanzine has been the authority on the latest upcoming bands and a resource for all those interested in rock and roll.


 
 
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