I think the indie community was fairly unanimous in the fact that the Passion Pit’s 2009 debut Manners was an amazing album. I don’t know whether you’d call it a “classic” but it’s really, really good. Quick paced and full of vocal and synth hooks that could be stuck in your head for hours: just like that, 45 minutes has passed. The last chorus has rung out. So you put the album on again, and you found even more to like about it. That’s really what was brilliant about it, you could go back and find new things to like about it time and time again, to the point that you can still listen to it now, three years on from its release and think “Yeah, I’m gonna have the chorus of ‘Seaweed Song’ following me around for hours.”
Understandably, when Gossamer was announced there was a certain level of excitement among fans. Passion Pit were delivering another album and when ‘Take a Walk’ hit soundcloud in early May it was almost too good to bear. Its opening riff is so catchy. Then, a month later ‘I’ll be Alright’ hit the internet. Surely, Passion Pit couldn’t deliver a second amazing album, could they?
Gossamer finally came out, and it must be said, it’s an unbelievable album. It’s another LP that you want to just put on repeat, an album that just flows beautifully from start to finish. From the opening riff of ‘Take A Walk,’ you can tell that it’s going to be another catchy album. ‘I’ll Be Alright’ follows and by the time the third track, ‘Carried Away’ is finished, you realise that Passion Pit really are class. In the three years that they’ve been away, they haven’t lost any of their danceable charm that we have come to expect.
‘Constant Conversations’ and ‘On My Way’ show off a side of Passion Pit that we haven’t really seen before and let Michael Angelakos show off his vocal talent (which had gone unnoticed for much of the two albums due to the production of the songs). The pace, however, is never really lost and is instantly picked up with the likes of ‘Mirrored Sea’ and ‘Hideaway’ which both have lovely choruses and hit you with a wall of sound. By the time the final track ‘Where We Belong’ finishes, you are itching to hit repeat.
I’d love to be able to point out highlights on this album, but frankly there are just too many. ‘Take a Walk’ is a fantastic track, but then so is ‘I’ll be Alright’ and ‘Carried Away’. It seems unfair to pinpoint any particular song and say “Yeah, this song is better than any others.” Somewhere on this album there are favourites that stand out, just like any other album. The thing is they aren’t obvious on this album. They are hidden treasures, and personal preference will dictate which certain track shines through from day to day.
If you didn’t like Passion Pit’s first album, then don’t bother with Gossamer. You’re probably not going to like it. Fans of Passion Pit’s first album will no doubt fall in love with this release. They’ve managed to mature, evolving as a band without losing any of the charm that people have come to relate with Passion Pit and whilst Manners will go down as the ground-breaking debut, Gossamer will live on as another brilliant album.
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Daniel Clayton
Dance Yrself Clean
