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The technical definition of an EP is an album not exceeding 4 tracks or 25 minutes, whichever comes first. Passion Pit’s Chunk of Change EP teeeeeeechnically contains 6 tracks, totaling about 29 minutes of tunage. After obtaining the knowledge, however, that the man who puts the passion in Passion Pit, Michael Angelakos, wrote the first four tunes on the EP on his laptop for his girlfriend at the ripe old age of 20 and only included the last two at the request of the label before they would release the EP, I decided that I could, in good conscience, review the first four tracks as an EP. Furthermore, after getting to know both the Chunk of Change EP and PP’s full-length debut titled Manners I realized that the 5^th track on the EP, Sleepyhead, makes a rather stunning appearance on the LP and track 6, Better Things, was clearly written to fulfill the label’s request, doesn’t fit with the rest of the EP and generally sucks I don’t feel bad ignoring them. So, on to the true EP.

I will confess, I acquainted myself with the LP before the EP and got used to PP’s big, updated-80’s disco, sample-heavy, falsetto glory in a hurry. If you haven’t heard Moth’s Wings go find it right now. Needless to say, when I first put the EP in the CD player (let’s see how many two-letter acronyms I can pack into this SC review) I expected more of the same. What came out, though, was anything but. Beautifully and simply (but perfectly) layered the first track, I’ve Got Your Number, kicks off with a pretty innocuous drum beat and adds instruments every 8 bars until there’s enough in the mix to lay some vox on. At this point I immediately pulled the PP EP CD out of the player and checked to see if the record company had pulled a fast one on me and put some other CD in the PP EP CD JC. They had not, so I put the Chunk of Change media back in and let ‘er rip.

I’ve Got Your Number does indeed build steadily into a pretty raucous chorus—the chorus is a textbook example of how to properly push vocals just over the edge of fidelity using just enough overdrive to put a little grit on top but not lose expression. The tune stays on course and rather level throughout—the lyrics are a little cheeseball… ‘Have you seen me crying tears like diamonds’…’faster and faster, at the speed of love, [we’re] batting a-thousand’… but that’s OK. Me likey.

Track two, however, is one for the books. A studio in stereo field play, Smile Upon Me really deserves a great pair of headphones. We kick off with a rather ethereal synth line being passed between your left and right brains and start grooving on this immediately. A few seconds in we get some seemingly random drum hits which seem kind of off-time but build into… a totally different groove. It is at this point that we realize the synth line we grooved so hard on isn’t the groove at all. What’s more, they keep it going through the entire track. Sitting at my desk I get dizzy listening to it… the three-over-four hemiola for a full 5 minutes and 50 seconds is enough to make even that guy who can drink a case-and-a-half of Milwaukee’s Best in 2 hours and still beat me at a game of pool feel a little unsteady. It seems like Angelakos put a little more time into the lyrics for this one too—it’s good. Give it a shot.

Cuddle Fuddle. Huh? At this point I don’t know what to expect from this EP. Over what sounds like a vintage hip-hop beat some 80’s robot TV-show samples fill out the groove and cascading synths provide the base for a rather technically-relaxed but AWESOME vocal performance. I love this track. The sing-songey feel and goofy ragtime-piano samples make this an absolutely Chazzbot-bonified feel-good track. I can’t get enough. Followed by Live to Tell the Tail in which Angelakos plays with multi-tracking vocals and really letting any sense of musicality go while singing the final chorus (but, again, somehow making it work!) this EP is closed out very much the same way it came in—level, even, well composed and well executed. Now, if you’ve bought the EP from the shelf you’ll have two more tracks… I recommend just starting all over now. Sleepyhead is brilliant (and I mean every letter of that) but belongs on the LP and the last track just isn’t worth it.

At the end of the day (or the EP, whichever comes first) I guarantee you’ll be in a better place than you were when you started. All the things you loved about Manners are present here, you just have to look a little harder. And you’ll be very happy you did.

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Post Tags: Album Review, Chunk of Change, Passion Pit

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