The album starts with "Make Light", a song with a somewhat epic intro that fades into the softer vox of Michael Angelakos, the keyboardist/lead vocalist. During the end of the first verse, the synth riff from the intro makes a reappearance and then it fades into the second verse, which is slightly boppier than the first with the looping ting-ting drum pattern and the female "bop bop bop bop" vox in the back. It then segues into a magnificent chorus that takes you by surprise with the slowing of the tempo and the sudden slightly melodramatic turn, and the chorus finishes off with the synth riff. It then goes back to the same chorus which is then promptly ended with another chorus. "Make Light" is a great song to open the album, and a great song in general.
It then leads into the second track, "Little Secrets". This is one of my favorites from the album because of the synth and the beat's playful positivity. And frankly, it's dancable. Fo sho. The chorus is composed of some short keyboard riffs and Michael wailing like crazy as usual. The chorus is very catchy and contains a childrens' choir, which is a plus in any situation. If you buy only a few songs from Manners, "Little Secrets" should be one of them.
The next track is "Moth's Wings". It is slow and emotional in a way that doesn't divert from Passion Pit's usual style. This song is one of the more beautiful songs on the album...Passion Pit was definitely "on a roll" or so to speak with the first few tracks of this album. The chorus incorporates vocals from the whole band in a brilliant way, making you want to start the song over to hear that first fade from verse-to-chorus again. "Moth's Wings" should be at the end of some movie that has to do with tragedy. In the next few decades, if anybody makes a movie about the Titanic, the sinking scene should definitely contain "Moth's Wings". If a Titanic movie pops up, somebody write a letter or let me know so that I can.
"Moth's Wings" is followed by the single, "The Reeling". As previously stated, it is a pretty great song. It's the sort of song that makes you want to start moving. I'm not really a dancey person, but as I sit here writing this review my hips are swinging the computer chair side-to-side with the beat. It's like a disease. If you don't own Manners, you should at least own "The Reeling".
Next we have "Eyes as Candles", which opens with a surprisingly ordinary drum riff which fades into a 80's love ballad synth pattern which makes you want to grin from ear-to-ear, as do many of Passion Pit's more adventurous ideas. The chorus is surprising...the verse was "cute", but the chorus is actually "good". Once the chorus came on, I remembered why "Eyes as Candles" stood out to me upon first listen. Not better than "The Reeling", but definitely a highlight.
After this, it's "Swimming in the Flood". The intro is some far-off strings that sort-of pulsate louder towards you until a hip-hoppy beat comes in with a electric piano riff...the strings fade off to Michael singing softly (?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!). This song is soft in a charming way, but that being said, it doesn't necessarily stand out. This song is good by general standards, but compared to the songs that we just heard on Manners, it isn't anything to go crazy over.
After that, "Folds in your Hands" comes on. It's another song that's slightly "retro" at some parts. The verse is actually nothing special (despite the fact that I love throwback songs, see my Black Eyed Peas review), but the chorus is actually pretty good. Passion Pit has a way of changing their songs greatly from verse-to-chorus. For the chorus, "Folds in your Hands" is a good song but for everything else, it isn't really special. It's better than some of the songs on the album, but not as good as those first few.
Then we have "To Kingdom Come" which has a surprisingly down-to-Earth intro, for Passion Pit, but then we get some synth, as we usually do. Passion Pit has a way with their synth, being an alternative-electronic hybrid band. "To Kingdom Come" has a pretty good verse...not as wild and jumpy as most of their songs but still good in its own right. Passion Pit takes a break from their magnificent choruses with this song...the chorus sounds like a slightly louder version of the verse. It has a pretty good bridge...most PP songs don't even really have a bridge, but this one has a good one. Worth a listen or two.
After this, their original hit single "Sleepyhead" from Chunk of Change makes a reappearance. This song is brilliant, as you should know if you're already a PP fan...this is the song that introduced many of us (including me) to the band. I personally put this song on repeat for at least an hour when I first got Chunk of Change. If you don't already own this song, you should definitely buy it, even if you don't buy anything else.
After that we get "Let Your Love Grow Tall", which immediately has a pretty playful verse and fades into a short, drifty second part, which is a trick that Passion Pit pulls out often. this happens twice in the first minute of the song. Then the chorus starts, and alas! There's another childrens' choir! This is probably one of my favorites from the latter half of this record.
After that is the final song, "Seaweed Song", which, excluding "Sleepyhead", is the best song of the second half of Manners, IMO. It has a great chorus. This isn't a song that you would usually think of dancing to, but the beat that appears in the chorus is way too jungley and cool to not move a little bit to. The verse is slow in a satisfying way...it makes it seem like a happy song even though it usually wouldn't sound like one. This is another song with a bridge, which is pretty nice, slapped there in the middle of the song. A great song in whole.
So overall, I definitely think you should purchase Manners in full. I find it to be better than Chunk of Change...it seems like all of the things I liked from the debut were magnified x10 and all of the things I didn't like about the first effort by Passion Pit were snipped completely. Manners is outstanding, as an album.
Key tracks: "Make Light", "Little Secrets", "Moth's Wings", "The Reeling", "Eyes as Candles", "Sleepyhead", "Seaweed Song". Too many tracks are "key" on this album to purchase them individually, though, I think...it would do the album much more justice to just buy the whole thing.
Below is "Sleepyhead" and "The Reeling".
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