In early 2007, college student Michael Angelakos made several electronica songs solely on his computer as a Valentine’s Day gift for his girlfriend. Angelakos then decided to put these songs on an EP known as Chunk Of Change, made with keyboardist Xander Singh, guitarist Ian Hultquist and drummer Nate Donmoyer in Boston, thus creating the band Passion Pit.

Immediately, Passion Pit brought a lot of fans in with their hit “Sleepyhead” while later on releasing three studio albums: Manners, Gossamer and most recently on April 21, Kindred. Straying away from Passion Pit’s original sound in Manners and Gossamer, Angelakos independently worked on Kindred and brought back the same vibes from Passion Pit’s earlier work, creating a masterpiece.

Beginning this ten-track album is Passion Pit’s first single, “Lifted Up (1985),” which was released on February 16 with fans demanding more. “Lifted Up (1985)” immediately starts off with “Ohhh,” clapping and a nice synth vibe getting faster as the rosy chorus approaches. After the chorus hits for the second time, the song gets significantly slower while the clapping continues and Angelakos sings, “lift us back to the sky and the world above.” The chorus plays again one more time, leaving listeners in a happy mood from the fun synth, prepping them for the next song on the album, “Whole Life Story.”

Two of the many songs, “Whole Life Story” and “All I Want,” contain electronic sounds that easily remind Passion Pit listeners of songs on Chunk of Change. For example, once the second chorus on “All I Want” ends, there are a lot of computerized tunes that simulates to “I’ve Got Your Number” and note-wise it is played on the keyboard like the chorus of “Sleepyhead.” The throwback in this fourth track was a great surprise, showing that Passion Pit never lost their initial touch.

Shockingly, Kindred has only one serene song, “Dancing on the Grave,” unlike Gossamer which had several such as “Constant Conversations” and “It’s Not My Fault, I’m Happy.” “Dancing on the Grave” starts off tranquilly while high-pitched yet angelic vocals join in soon after. Overall, the track has cute, touching lyrics, but the basic keyboard sounds and soothing vocals make the song sound dark and eerie. In Passion Pit’s older, calmer songs, there is always one part where the song gets upbeat and cheery; however, “Dancing on the Grave” is the only song released so far that keeps a continuous, breathless vibe.

Out of all of the songs, the last track, “Ten Feet Tall (II)” should not have been added to Kindred because the huge difference in the song throws the entire album off and repulses listeners. Covered in electric-pop vocals sang on a vocoder, the song is played on an obnoxious synthesizer and the lyrics are extremely hard to make out. Although the song is only two minutes long, it is without a doubt a painful song to listen to.

Passion Pit’s new album, Kindred, is an overall great album with a lot of electronic and optimistic beats. Angelakos’ vocals in nearly all the songs are a pleasure to listen to as they hit a variety of notes in the right spots. Kindred and Passion Pit as a whole are definitely worth trying to get into, especially if one is trying to get into electronica songs. While bringing back a lot of familiar sounds from Chunk of Change, Angelakos managed to not stray too far away from Passion Pit’s sounds in Manners and Gossamer and will make fans everywhere happy with this new release.