STANDALONE POST: When The Notes Mean More - 26Jun2025
Album and song reviews with a sense of purpose
Normally, the music reviews will be part of long posts. But sometimes, you want to feel something in music, and then write about in the spur of moment after you listen to it. While the thoughts are still fresh. Thats what I decided to do with the album I am going to review today; one I have been meaning to listen to in completion for a long time:
The indie electronica act The Naked and Famous’ Passive Me, Aggressive You. Which has pretty cool cover art.
The review/recap
A number of years ago, I had heard the song “Young Blood.” It had gotten some radio play, especially on the college radio circuit. I was instantly drawn to the song. Its dreamy and distorted synthesizer, pulsing drumbeats, and a sweet yet aggressive vocal over those new sounds I hadn’t heard before had me hooked. The lead singer, Alisa Xayalith, had always kind of entranced me with her vocals. It was beauty in dissonance.
I’ve been listening to that song on several playlists for years. Multiple playlists for many moods. One of them being the playlist I have for songs to run to. “Young Blood” is a great song to run to get those BPM’s up.
It was about time to give the album it came from, Passive Me, Aggressive You, a full listen to see if it pulled on me the same way “Young Blood” did. With beauty in dissonance flowing through every crevice of this record, it most definitively did.
With a sound that could only be described as an army of Decepticons descending from the sky, this record roars from the very first note and beat. The first track, “All of This”, has a fast-looping drumbeat as they utter the words “Passive Me, Aggressive You” perhaps setting the tone for the album - and its songs do take on either a very passive or aggressive tone. “In the time it took to get this bad…I could have made this work but all I had… was the hope that pieces would take shape…and we could watch them fall into place.” A track of regret perhaps and realizing that two lovers who were mismatched held on to it for too long.
The next track keeps this lively drumbeat going. “Punching in a Dream” layers more of this almost scratchy synthesizer sounds and Xayalith’s warbling dreamy vocals into a more chaotic sound. “Like punching in a dream, breathing life into my nightmare.” Such a poetically chaotic line to accompany a chaotic song.
The next song “Frayed” starts off sounding like something from Gogol Bordello or DeVotchka, a gypsy punk type of synthesizer note. But soon come in harmonized vocals and hellacious distorted guitar as the song picks up. The gypsy punk vibe stays in the background, but the distortion grows. The song becomes frayed as it progresses. A propos for the name of the song, its title reflects its quality.
Sometimes in all the chaos, you need a respite. Actually, I’d venture to say any album that kind of kicks your ass for a few songs, needs a little rest. A song or a few songs to reset you before it kicks your ass again. “The Source” and “The Sun” are those two tracks. Seemingly one track together, the serene piano notes with the lightest of snare drum touches of “The Source” (a 48-second track) transition right into “The Sun” which continues the same piano notes but buries them an ambient sound and has harmonized and crescendo-ing vocals over this strangely calming backdrop with a bit of a vibe of the descending Decepticon army. “The Sun” puts you in a trance from the very beginning. The song makes references to not remembering and being numb - the sounds in this song reflect that. "But it keeps on coming, and I just stop moving” repeated over and over as the song crescendos to its final calm notes where “and I run” are the words that fade out the song.
Parts of this album have a bit of an 80s feel to it to. Perhaps there is some influence from Duran Duran, Thompson Twins, New Order, and other synth-heavy acts of the 80s. “Eyes” is that nod to those influences. It refers to falling and soaring with that signature 80s beat and a soft-dreamy vocal. I can’t help but wonder is this is rooted in a feeling of freedom for whomever penned the lyrics.
I don’t need to advertise “Young Blood” again - I said so much in the intro to this. Its a great track and has all of those characteristics I love in this band.
There is some sound I hear in this album that share a lot of characteristics with recent Taylor Swift records, with that atmospheric background and hauntingly hushed vocals. The next three tracks are clear examples of this: “No Way” “Spank” and “Jilted Lovers.”
“No Way” makes me think of some tracks off of the Midnights album. And a lot in the same sentiment too. Of course, it has a Naked and Famous vibe to it with that signature synth-y, but as “Won’t look back, no way” is whispered in the end over an almost robotic sounding acoustic guitar - I realize that all music really influences each other and that this is just one example of the depth of many artists. “Spank” is the same in its cross-relation, with a Nine Inch Nails inspired industrial machine-driven sound and megaphone vocals. But with a pop-driven beat and a calming hushed vocal that slowly gets louder. I get the sense in this song is just about being overwhelmed with one’s own mind. A very humanly relatable concept.
“Jilted Lovers” is an even more dreamy sounding song that “Spank” with a softer, but cracklier beat. Xayalith whispers "Jilted lovers, sleeping in the unrest, How do we survive to make amends?” I feel like I’ve heard lines that captured that same sentiment in the same purpose-driven sounds I heard in the most electronic-influenced parts of Midnights.
“A Wolf In Geek’s Clothing” is a return to the aggression. Harmonizing with her other band members like Jerry Cantrell and Layne Staley used to in Alice in Chains, to become one big voice, a heavily-distorted thrashing guitar blares until taking a respite to allow lines in the song that are never more than 2 or 3 words at a time. It is an aggressive sounding tone, but the sung lyrics in that guitar-free respite simply tell us to accept fate: “Ashes flow, Moon is glow, Run away, forget the day.” “Moon is glow” is all I need to hear to know that it’s time to forget anything that creates that churn inside.
“The Ends” and “Girls Like You” finish off the album. They provide a great conclusion to an record that was a mix of inner chaos and acceptance. “The Ends” is a short song, with very few words - mainly saying “It’s all about to end at last” over the most ethereal soundscape I could imagine. Maybe this is about the lovers that held on too long in “All of This” and realizing this finality. “Girls Like You,” mainly sung not by Alisa Xayalith, but the male members of the band with Xayalith providing background and response vocals. The male voice says “Don’t you know people write songs about girls like you?” as Xayalith responds with “Everything you say is fire.” This is the exasperating argument the lovers continually had. Maybe what ended them. And like much of the album, the song fades away into dreamy atmospheric sound with the blare of a Decepticon army. Beauty in dissonance.
Passive Me, Aggressive You was a great record from start to finish. Taking the time to listen to it front to back was a journey into a sound that I needed to hear. If you need to let the beauty in dissonance take you away, queue up Passive Me, Aggressive You, lay back, open your ears, and let it take you for a ride.
Thank you for reading this edition of “When The Notes Just Mean More” as part of the Nerd-O-Divergent family of content.
I will be back soon with new posts!
Find me elsewhere in the universe