Passion Pit: “Take a Walk”

Passion Pit’s music definitely resembles their name — I know I’m not the only one who pictures a neon tornado of arms and limbs flailing about when I hear their crazily popular, crazily recognizable ridiculousness they called their first release. “Passion Pit” is also the name of an early ’80s sex-flick. The same description applies.

After finding huge success on their first album, both critically and commercially (literally, they were on commercials), the Massachusetts collective have just released the first single from their upcoming second album. “Take a Walk” is the single, Gossamer the album. The title “Take a Walk,” however, does not accurately reflect the feel of the song. I tried to imagine taking a walk to the song — hell I even walked around my apartment (much to the dismay and confusion of my roommates watching the Knicks game) — but I ended up doing push-ups or high knees or anything else to expend unnecessary amounts of energy. While certainly more refined than “Little Secrets” or “Sleepyhead,” this is still an anthem for the young and the restless. That line works much better when you don’t think of the daytime soap opera of the same name. Michael Angelakos spares the high falsetto voice for this single. Reminiscent of Bob Dylan switching away from his original nasal folk voice — although I don’t believe there will be as much of a fan uproar, because Angelakos’ voice is actually really good.

Gossamer is due out July 24, and everyone seems expectant of a good output, from the “Hello Kitty” avatars of the pre-teen girl bloggers to the nit-picking hipsters who could only find one thing to complain about in the 131 Soundcloud comments I looked through – “don’t like the sound of the drums. too compressed.” Seriously, they just had to find something to complain about. Maturity comes with a price, as even the most loyal fans are always uneasy when bands change their sound. And judging by the first single, I’m expecting (happily) a more mature album that even the most hard core nit-pickers will find little to complain about. And plus there’s that Meatloaf quote, “1 out of 131 ain’t bad,” or something like that.