I was watching TV as usual last night when a commercial for Glee came on. Of course I always think “What are they ruining this week?”, and it just happened to be my beloved Human League. While I wouldn’t mind them gaining some sort of publicity, I’m pretty sure most Glee fans won’t go running into a record store trying to find one of the Human League’s albums. If anything, they’ll buy the Glee compilation album and totally ignore the original. The cover sounds like a horrible car accident; you don’t like what you’re hearing, but you’ll look anyway, just to see how bad it is. Honestly, it sounded like one of those 80s new wave compilation albums made up of really, really bad covers and poor production. The auto-tune is horrifying to say the least. That’s my view on Glee in a nutshell.
Contrary to popular belief, I don’t hate mainstream music at all. Sure, I may not like a lot of the music that is considered mainstream, but usually I simply avoid it. Taste is entirely subjective. When you look at a cross section of any high school, you’ll find a few metalheads, hipsters, punks, etc. but a large swath of kids stuck with the mainstream. I’ve often heard of the argument that most kids don’t view music as a hobby, but rather something fun and relaxing. While I think it does apply to a good number of kids we shouldn’t forget the number one goal of high schoolers; to be wildly popular. Of course, the mainstream is what is considered popular by the “cool kids” in school. It’s not so much that kids don’t want to look for other music, they just would rather fit in. Gucci Mane is bloody awful, but since all the popular kids listen to him, it must be good, right? Then there’s the abomination that is Darude’s Sandstorm… I’ve had too many kids come up to me and say “I LOVE techo too!!!” and they play me that or some crappy Basshunter song. Both are mainstream, but you have the portion of kids who think they’re somehow different by listening to them… They’re played at nearly every single school dance for Christ’s sake… You present anything that isn’t mainstream, like I did with Passion Pit’s “Sleepyhead” (This was before they were considered cool Indie) and you get laughed at for it being weird. At least it’s cool to be indie now… You know, listening to MGMT, Passion Pit and Phoenix make you totally indie, because they are just so obscure. Point is, develop something different in your taste and break the molds. If you like mainstream, more power to you, but you’re missing out.
I absolutely love this song. It’s fun as hell.
I quite like this track. I hope you all feel the same.
I posted about them a few months ago, it’s nice to have seen them become more successful. Almost Delphic-esque but with a pop sound in this track. Here’s Fenech-Soler with Demons.
This is incredibly smooth and addicting. It’s very reminiscent of stuff you’d find from the 60s, maybe even a bit of the 70s.
Get their favorite songs now!
I love The Vaccines, and, as a result, I’ve linked them so the rest of you can enjoy their goodness too.
Alright, so I’ve gotten a request from my good friend Ben Summers to review Manners by Passion Pit. I’ve been raving about this particular album for a while now and it was my album of 2009. First off, the entire synthesizer scene is pretty much dominated by Owl City in the mainstream at the moment, and, luckily, Passion Pit is pretty much the opposite. The overly cute and unnecessarily cryptic lyrics (in order to create a “Oh, well isn’t he deep” feel) found in Owl City’s songs simply add more fuel to the painfully auto-tuned fire.
Now, before this turns into a rant on how much I dislike Owl City, I’d like to say that Passion Pit is a good stepping stone into the true synth music scene. They’re relatively safe with their music, nothing particularly revolutionary or experimental. In this case it’s not really an issue as they build strong sounding songs with plenty of layers of instrumentation. Anyone can bash a few notes and hit the arpeggiator on a Casio, but it does take a certain level of talent to create a mood or feel. “Moth’s Wings” is a brilliant example with the powerful entrance moving into calm transitions. Transitions usually kill a good number of artists, far too many sound exactly the same and the songs slowly become predictable. The lyrics in the song, at least stylistically, go through the vocal gymnastics fairly well without sounding overdone. The level of emotion within the song is very well conveyed by both the instrumentation and the singing itself. I’ll move on now to “Little Secrets”. This tune has its 80s influences with a bit of a pop feel, which in this case is pulled off particularly well. The chorus of kids surprisingly compliments the song very well, and at times it feels like I’m almost listening to a bit of Chromeo. This is proof that a song can be fun and cheerful without being aimed at the dreaded tween girl demographic everyone seems to be aiming for nowadays.
Those two songs really present both ends of what Passion Pit can do, both fun and deep emotion. Most bands are fairly exclusive to either one or the other, so it’s refreshing to see someone mix it up a bit. Overall, the album is worth the cash by far.
Just me and my music.
Ricer : Eyy What you got on dat car?
Me :...
“Little Lion Man” by Mumford & Sons
I have been listening...
