The return of Passion Pit, three years after 2009’s ‘Manners’, finds them in a weird position. Their melding of twee indie sentiments with playful electronics been co-opted by every band you can think of (from ‘Day & Age’ – era Killers to MGMT). Such that the ‘shock of the new’ formula that made tracks like ‘Sleepyhead’ and ‘The Reeling’ feel so fresh, is now part of the fabric of music.
Consequently, expectations are high for ‘Take A Walk’ are extremely high. We’re not asking them to reinvent the wheel but one feels that they need to pull off something spectacular to grab our attention again.
The bad news is that ‘Take A Walk’ isn’t that song. The beat is pounding and insistent and the synths sound familiar. Whilst the narrative of the lyrics finds Angelakos pondering his All American belief system in light of the recession. It’s an odd mix. To hear Passion Pit tackling this kind of material one feels they should have made the requisite expansion in their sound. As it stands the track, which feels like a teaser , as opposed to that big comeback single, falls between two posts and just ends up coming off quite ordinary.