Manners

The Artist

Passion Pit is the indie-pop project fronted by Michael Angelakos, formed in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the late 2000s while he was a student at Emerson College. The band's origin story is well-worn indie lore: Angelakos made an EP of songs as a belated Valentine's gift for a girlfriend, and the tracks caught fire on campus and beyond. Their sound is defined by Angelakos's soaring falsetto, dense layers of synths, chopped vocal samples, and an almost overwhelming maximalism that pairs euphoric production with lyrics that often run darker than the surface suggests. Manners is the band's proper full-length debut, arriving after the buzz of the Chunk of Change EP and cementing them as one of the definitive indie-pop acts of the blog era. It sits at the beginning of a career that would grow more personal and emotionally raw on later records.

The Album

Manners was released in May 2009 on Frenchkiss Records in the US and Columbia in the UK, following a period of intense buzz built off the band's earlier EP. The album leans into a densely layered, hyper-bright production style, with stacked synths, live drums, and prominent use of a children's choir on several tracks. Angelakos took a heavy hand in the writing and production himself, giving the record a singular, slightly overloaded sonic personality that became instantly recognizable. Beneath the sugar rush, the songs deal with anxiety, relationships, self-doubt, and the messy business of growing up, a contrast that gives the album much of its staying power. This edition also includes stripped-down versions of two key tracks and the bonus cut "Dreams," offering a look at the songs outside their maximalist frame.

Listen For

The wall-of-sound production. Notice how much is happening at any given moment on tracks like "Little Secrets" and "The Reeling": layered synths, hand claps, live drums, and stacked vocals all fighting for space in the mix.

Angelakos's falsetto. His voice sits at the top of nearly every song, often pushed to its limit. Pay attention to how he uses it as both a lead instrument and a texture on "Moths Wings" and "Sleepyhead."

The children's choir. The PS22 Chorus features prominently on several tracks, most notably "Little Secrets," turning hooks into communal chants and adding an unexpected layer of innocence to the maximalism.

Lyrics vs. mood. Listen closely to what Angelakos is actually singing on "Moths Wings" or "Swimming In The Flood." The lyrics carry real weight and anxiety even as the music races upward.

The stripped-down versions. Compare the album takes of "Sleepyhead" and "Moths Wings" to their stripped-down counterparts at the end of the record. The bones of the songs get exposed in a way the full productions hide.