Hot Disc: Passion Pit, Most Serene Repulic

Sounds like we’re under new MGMT: Cambridge-bred cool jammers Passion Pit (above, myspace.com/passionpitjams) and their first full-length, Manners (Frenchkiss Records), have all the hallmarks of this summer’s it-band. Like the “Kids” kids, they’ve got psych-rock heroes (it’s one fantastic trip from the Beatles to Animal Collective) and ridiculous pop hooks. They, too, mix synthy disco with sweet-voiced children in chorus. And their first single, “The Reeling,” is as crankable—and endlessly remixable—as “Electric Feel” ever got.

But Passion-ate frontman Michael Angelakos, is younger, just 21, and where MGMT comes off too hip to their hype, he sounds heartbreakingly earnest. His perfect pitch rivals Antony’s on the Hercules and Love Affair hit “Blind”— that’s major praise. Meanwhile, his despairing undertones run deep, making the uber-joyous uplift (best felt on “Folds in Your Hands”) all the more real.

Thing is, I’ve been excited to write about Passion Pit for so long—ever since “Smile Upon Me,” from their Chunk of Change EP, infiltrated my winter S.A.D.—that by the time Manners released last week, I had stopped comparing P.P. to MGMT and started comparing other bands to P.P. (It’s a very academic thing, this music blogging biz.)

For example: like the rest of the Canadian indie-rock holdouts, the Most Serene Republic (http://www.myspace.com/themostserenerepublic) is releasing an album this summer. (See also: Sunset Rubdown, Broken Social Scene.) First single, “Heavens to Purgatory,” was described in the press release as sounding “like a Destroyer-esque acoustoballad before taking a wide left turn towards Passion Pit Town.” Sold! Sound it out for yourself with a free download.

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