CD of The Week

Passion Pit's 2009 debut Manners was a gloriously extroverted affair. All blaring siren synths, blasting beats and alarming yet arresting vocals, it was a record that demanded attention. Oddly, while doing that it also managed to conceal and even foreshadow deeper, darker issues the band was experiencing within. Depression, substance abuse, a budding resentment and defensiveness against the media. And those were just issues facing singer Michael Angelakos, issues that still linger if recently cancelled tour appearances for the sake of "mental health" are any indication. </font>

<font size="2">Whatever journey of personal reflection and recovery Angelakos is on, it began with sophomore album Gossamer. The album is fraught with emotional turmoil, alienation and deconstruction. Angelakos wrote and produced much of the album himself, and as such its lyrics are nothing if not cathartic. "Cry Like a Ghost" talks of friends that enabled his destructive behavior, while "I'll Be Alright" and "Constant Conversations" are about the romantic relationship that may have saved him. Though the subjects are often harrowing, the music around them is anything but. If anything, Gossamer boasts even more exuberance in sound than its predecessor, as well as more subtlety and variety. The aforementioned "Conversation" is a silky R&B jam that makes it's emotional candidness all the more potent, and "Carried Away" glides with a shimmer and shimmy worthy of dance producer/remixer Fred Falke. Best of all is "On My Way." The aural equivalent of a light at the end of the tunnel, it's a love letter (and perhaps proposal) to the girlfriend that stood by him in the storm and sports what's arguably the most euphoric Passion Pit chorus yet, which says a lot. One can only hope that this album was as therapeutic for Angelakos as it is rewarding and revelatory for listeners. Whoever said one shouldn't dissect Gossamer? </font>

<font size="2">Catch Passion Pit live (hopefully...) at the Made In America Festival in Philadelphia over Labor Day weekend.