Review Summary: If you want some mathrock mixed with punk there's a plenty of albums that can provide you a better experience than Passive Aggressive. I highly recommend Doppelgänger, an awesome piece of art.
You know, there are bands who try to combine genres that are too far and the mixture often sounds forced. Well, Marmozets is definitely not one of these bands.
Mathrock, punk and indie rock aren't that far from each other. I believe they can be combined in an awesome way. But not by this band.
I tried to like them. You know, I'm an open minded guy. But even if these musicians were my best friends, it would be hard to say this album is decent without a sarcastic smile.
Let's see where does their first EP fail...
It takes about a half minute to find out these guys are huge TFOT fans. The typical mathrock part with a bit of hardcore influence (that some ignorant people might call mathcore) is reminiscent of Thomas Erak's brilliant style. There's even a major 7 chord in this pseudo-chaotic riff which makes the influence even more obvious. Let's move.
The verse and the chorus are nothing special. There isn't anything interesting here. The vocal themes are half-catchy (as usual), the chord progressions have been heard countless times in modern alternative music.
I don't want to go any further, I think you got the point. This song is as forced and mediocre as it can get and unfortunately almost every song falls into the same trap. The mathrock riffs are cheesy and the choruses aren't catchy enough.
Of course (like every album) Passive Aggressive has a few redeeming factors.
They use a load of 7 chords which is a cheap but rewarding way of creating an atmosphere and the last song is quite good. Well at least it would be good if Becca hasn't ruined it with her terrible style of singing. It's quite sad because I'm sure she can sing properly it's just her attitude and the distortion that makes her performance embarrassing.
So what could I say. If you want some mathrock mixed with punk there's a plenty of albums that can provide you a better experience than Passive Aggressive. I highly recommend Doppelgänger, an awesome piece of art. If you're looking for mathrock with female vocals, don't worry because even Tricot's debut LP is way(!) better than this album.
