Review Summary: Charged musically and emotionally.
The first time you hear "I'll Be Alright," you'll probably be amazed at the sheer shock of the chorus's synthesizers. The second time, you'll be singing along. By the third time, you'll have noticed how emotional the lyrics are, and by the fourth, you'll have noticed how emotional the music is. This hopefully realistic but hypothetical experience defines
Gossamer.
The album is musically intriguing - for the most part, there's a good mix of sounds, not too varied, but not too one-track. From the almost overwhelming synths in various tracks, to the glitch of "Where We Belong," to the low, wobbly, bass in "Constant Conversations, it never quite sounds the same. Some common themes, besides the lyrical content, help tie it all together: upbeat compositions and complexities, high-pitched background vocals, and a genuinely sweet sound. This isn't your typical Slurpee-style sweet, where it gets old really fast and leaves a somewhat gross taste in your mouth. This is a Hersheys-style sweet, where it feels genuine the whole bar, or album, through, and leaves you wanting a little more.
Gossamer will never leave you feeling too bored or let down, but it might leave you a little overwhelmed.
Thankfully, there are some great hooks to keep you going throughout the whole thing. Passion Pit have mastered drawing listeners in and keeping them there. By the end, you'll definitely have some key phrase stuck in your head, whether it be "Sylvia!", "I get carried away", or "It's not right!" This is definitely an album you'll want to listen to a few times, if for no other reason than because some of the songs are so repeatable.
With nothing but hooks and complexity, the album really wouldn't be worth listening, however. What really cements this album as fantastic is the pure emotion that runs throughout the whole thing. "Where We Belong," the final song, is the best example of this. The lyrics are a strange mix of inspiring and depressing: "It's hard to keep on living where your heart is but I knew you'd help,
all I've ever wanted was to be happy and make you proud." Michael Angelakos (the lead singer, who suffers from bipolar disorder) has an uncommon ability to capture how he feels with these words, and because of the trials he has gone through, the subject matter is much darker than would be assumed by the sparkly sounds, covering alcoholism, suicide, and the true meaning of love. Perhaps even more emotional than the lyrics is the music itself. It makes the listener want to cry - both from joy and sadness, perhaps simultaneously. "Where We Belong" especially evokes this feeling - particularly the finale.
Gossamer does have its flaws, of course - the previously mentioned overwhelmingness is one. Another is that some of the songs don't really flow well, or seem to fit in the album. But the most important thing about the album is that it is powerful. The true mission of music is to evoke something in the listener - and this is done scarily well.
