Passion Pit (2025)

One Liner: Synth pop falsetto guy with two big hits from last decade

Wikipedia Genre: Electropop, alternative dance, indietronica, synth-pop, indie pop, neo-psychedelia, art pop (whew, quite a list!)
Home: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Poster Position: Second Quarter - Line 9
Day: Sunday
Both Weekends.

Thoughts:  The name definitely sounded familiar, but before firing this up I did not remember either of their hits.  But here is what I wrote about their 2015 album when I wrote a truly quick hit review in 2015.  "Passion Pit - Kindred.  I've just never been able to get on board with Passion Pit.  The guy who offices next to me loooooooves them, but I just can't get it to click for me.  "Sleepyhead" off of 2009's Manners was an interesting song, kind of like the Avalanches until the singing starts, and "Take a Walk" from 2012's Gossamer was fine until the radio hammered it into everyone's face, but I just can't get behind this new album.  His high pitched singing is part of the issue, it never ever drops down into the normal range, and he cranks up auto-tune some on here as well.  Just not my stuff."

After wandering around in the catalog for a day and a half, I think that is still my feeling.  2009's Manners has some other good tunes on it, "Carried Away" from Gossamer is pretty good, but that is about all the praise I can come up with.  I'm just not that much of a synth pop falsetto-all-the-time guy I guess.  The band formed in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 2007, taking their name from a slang dictionary's term for drive-in theaters where teenagers could bone in their cars.  Michael Angelakos is the singer, synth player, and mastermind behind the whole thing, and he grabs several other players to come along for live shows.  At first, they gained some notoriety on the campus of Emerson College, where Angelakos was a student and handed out self-produced copies of their debut.  "Sleepyhead" was one of those initial singles, and it is still one of their top two tracks with 230.8 million streams.

Do people even know the Avalanches anymore?  Anyway, the backing tune to that song is significantly better than the annoying ass vocals for me.  That tune was off of 2009's Manners, their debut album, and I guess all they had to play when they were last here in 2009.  Their next album Gossamer has their biggest hit, "Take a Walk" with 315.5 million streams.

Sweet effects with that bouncing raquetball!  Was this the first drone footage ever?  Yeah, that is a good song.  I just remember being very tired of hearing that same synth/guitar riff from the chorus.  Interestingly, no new albums since 2017, just one new single in 2023 and a remix or two more recently.  After digging back into this, I really don't think I'd do this show unless it is a key band for my friends.