(Holiday!) Video(s) of the Moment #2254: Michael Angelakos
Header photo by Steven Brahms
Last Friday, Passion Pit frontman Michael Angelakos released a new holiday-themed “video album” titled ‘Merry Christmas, Mr. Fields’, in which each musical track on the album is apparently accompanied by a corresponding vignette or segment of a short film. Angelakos has released two video singles from the album so far, ‘Stained Glass Windows’ and ‘Christmas in Your Arms’.
Nothing is more poignantly sad than solemn-faced children, and Angelakos matches that stark visual effect with the muted twinkle of a piano melody in ‘Stained Glass Windows’. His vocals are deliberately childlike and artless, or at least as much so as a grown man’s voice can be, falling gracefully somewhere between Linus Van Pelt and Sondheim’s Desirée singing ‘Send in the Clowns’. It’s an unexpected intersection, to say the least, but emotionally, it finds its target.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/9VLzKlYCCKk[/youtube]
‘Christmas In Your Arms’ is a tiny bit lighter in tone, adopting a hazy, electro-jazz cabaret style that somehow fits Angelakos’ mildly strident vocal delivery. Its video adaptation features a familiar cast of youthful characters, who once again appear strangely jaded and made up to look older their years.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/sfvQ-RDDIc8[/youtube]
Michael Angelakos’ video album ‘Merry Christmas, Mr. Fields’ is available now via Frenchkiss Records. TGTF’s previous coverage of Angelakos in the context of Passion Pit is right back this way.
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