Passive Me, Aggressive You

Audacious debutants

The young New Zealand band The Naked & Famous is now into one of the most exciting and favorable periods any starting talented and promising outfit may have. The participants are bursting with the desire to show what they are made of, have not yet got tired of one another and pose a great interest to the audience, who at the moment know little of their music. Early in 2011, they got the first big opportunity to find out what this ensemble is like. A year after the official release on the band’s native soil, their debut long player was finally issued at the international market. The Naked & Famous called this CD Passive Me, Aggressive You, while its release in the rest of the world became one of the winter’s most discussed events. Although The Naked & Famous regularly go through comparisons with a range of established performers, like MGMT, and Yeasayer, the majority of critics share the opinion that beside the influences of the aforementioned acts, the music of the New Zealand ensemble reveals a lot more, initiated personally by the musicians of The Naked & Famous.

Genre carnival on the band’s first album

Passive Me, Aggressive You will constitute another witness to the statement that today only few performers try to work within tight restrictions of one or two styles, while the prevailing part prefers to build their music out of borrowings from a wide range of schools. Thus, dragging the listener deep into the depth of synth-pop and hailing him with powerful drums, the album kicks off with All Of This. The light electronica sounding far behind the rest of the music makes us believe we are listening to a bunch of naive and inexperienced musicians, but the confident vocals and hymn-like choruses, from time to time supported with guitar riffs, tells us an absolutely different story. Already today, already on their first album, The Naked & Famous deliver a complex type of multi-layered music. Rather stranger is the choice of two similar songs as singles. Punching In A Dream, and Young Blood are unified by the predominance of electronica and pulsating beats. The vocals, which may cause you some time to get used to, reveal their highlights in the choruses; and these are the choruses which will be the best part of the concert for all the visitors. In the meantime, the album also features tracks of a completely different kind. Try, for example, the brain-grinding metallic A Wolf In Geek's Clothing, or No Way, starting like another ballad and ending in a roar from a hard-rock cave.

Intriguing start of The Naked & Famous

The Naked & Famous walk tall on their debut Passive Me, Aggressive You. They look proudly into the distance trying to distinguish the shapes of their preeminence amongst their colleagues, competitors and followers. They jumped high to speak far and loud of their music views to the audience. What is most important now is that this high jump should not be followed by a low fall. Things happen, and the audience remembers well those young stars who failed to profit from their talent and ideas. So far, The Naked & Famous have it all under control and head for new countries and people looming on the horizon. After getting into grips with the band’s first long player, you may feel their primary goal was to prove they can play variously and always well. This shapes up the main questions about The Naked & Famous. What will they focus on, what direction will they choose? Passive Me, Aggressive You demonstrates a great music arsenal and spacious creative freedom. It is going to be interesting to follow the band’s development.