Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody has been forsaking his guitar of late to email QTheMusic.com about the bands that have been on his stereo lately. Here's Gary's third recommendation ....
Gary Lightbody's Band of The Week - Week 3: Passion Pit
The rules are there are no rules. Sure, we all know that. Music has got to the stage now where bands for the most part straddle two or more ever-increasing sub-genres (of what is essentially pop music) with ease, and yet still we are obsessed with giving names to all of these ever-splintering branches.
Looking on iTunes yesterday I found Passion Pit in both the electronic and the alternative sections. These are two very large, sprawling sections of course, but the fact Passion Pit sit so neatly in either (and they do) surely means the whole thing is farcical. You may ask me to come up with a more apt system - and to be honest, that’s where I fall down.
I’ll try to throw you a few bands of whom they remind me, but to try and pin down the sound and lyrical scope of this remarkable, joyous, angry, defiant, supercharged, blissfuck of a record is a fool's errand and I won’t do it, I tells ya! And anyway, more than alternative or electronic, to me this record is pop. Ha, I said I wouldn’t; but, look at that, I did.
Pop is a dirty word to some. Purist-friendly it may not especially be, but I think great cerebral pop (for they are not mutually exclusive) is as worthy of celebration as the worthiest of jazz or rock - or whatever. Hot Chip, Klaxons, Super Furry Animals, The Flaming Lips, LCD Soundsystem, Little Boots, Annie, Goldfrapp, Girls Aloud, Sugababes and multitudes more besides, not to mention The Beach Boys and The Beatles for crying out loud, whether you admit it or not, all make (or made) great pop records.
If it makes you feel glad to be alive, sparkly, triumphant, in love with your fellow human, has a killer verse/chorus thing going on, then it’s pop. What separates the great from the good though is weight in the lyrics and in the voice.
Anyone who read the last two weeks will notice a pattern developing, perhaps, but I’m a sucker for an unusual voice and words to match. So after the first few listens and Manners seduces you, first musically, with its topsy-turvy beats, circular guitars, wonderful wonky keyboards and it is all, seemingly, heavenly.
The lyrics in the beginning are hard primarily to make out at all - and then to fathom. How could such a joyous record throw a line like this at you from the song Reeling? “Is this the way my life has always been without a single opportunity.” Then you start to catch a glimpse of the album's darker side and it becomes very interesting indeed. As for the voice….
Micheal Angelakos sings in the great American tradition of high-toned, cracked brilliance. Dylan, Neil Young, Wayne Coyne, Jonathan Donahue, Ben Gibbard (in fact Gibbard’s side-project The Postal Service playing a college house party might be a neat, but trite, way of describing this record, if extremely over-simple) all echo here and Angelakos matches them in boldness and bravery and adds a youthful glint that seems to try to laugh in the face of the big subjects he tackles. Even if it is only a defence mechanism, it still feels defiant; noble, even.
Manners is a record about the world, human frailty, love, death and everything, all clothed in the most glorious pop you’ll hear all year. And speaking of ‘boldness’ - from my favourite song on the album To Kingdom Come: “All this talking bores my teeth. I believe in you so you believe in me”. Don’t believe me, listen and believe them.
Til next week, the biggest pop sized love to all.
gary.x.
p.s. Passion Pit's myspace.
Missed Gary's previous instalments?
Week 2: The Phantom Band
Week 1: Maccabees
You can also see a gallery of behind-the-scenes shots from the Snow Patrols tour here.
4:44 PM | 22/05/2009
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