Passion Pit are inextricably linked in my head to Parklife and what I am now calling the Parklife Generation. In the late ’80s, R.E.M. released a painful tune called Shiny Happy People (which was so awful that the awfulness of it has echoed down through the ages without losing any of its awful intensity). In that song, R.E.M. sang about ‘shiny happy people laughing’ in what could only be interpreted as deeply enthusiastic satire. These days, when bands like Passion Pit sing about ‘Love! Love! Love!’ a whole generation of Twitter bullies with glitter on their faces throw their hands up and scream with this irony-free enthusiasm that for some reason bugs me even more than R.E.M.’s Shiny Happy People. This is actually an excellent song, I think, objectively speaking, but everything we like is on some level a choice and I’m choosing not to throw my lot in with all you kiddie idiots this time.
Passion Pit : Gossamer
