The Naked and Famous – Passive Me, Aggressive You
‘Passive Me, Aggressive You’ is the debut studio album by New Zealand indie electronic band The Naked and Famous.
This New Zealand-based group mix glitchy, dreamy electronic pop and occasional outbursts of static-ridden noise with male-female duet vocals from Alisa Xayalith and Thom Powers that sound like Radiohead’s Thom Yorke whispering back and forth with Natasha Bedingfield. Many songs have a steady drum-machine thump to keep the listener’s attention focused, even as the low-key vocals nudge toward narcosis. The best of these is the album-closing “Girls Like You,” which manages to meld Hi-NRG synths, a dubby post-punk bassline, some guitar fuzz and murmurs from Powers that lead into anthemic howling, with oohs and aahs from Xayalith in the background.
‘Passive Me, Aggressive You’ debuted at number one on the New Zealand Albums Chart and 25 in the Australian ARIA charts . The album spawned four singles: “All of This”, “Young Blood”, “Punching in a Dream” and “Girls Like You”; with “Young Blood” peaking at number one.
