Insound Staff Pick - 2008! Boston's Passion Pit is the brainchild of Michael Angelakos. A songwriter's songwriter drawing from a variety of influences, from the classic pop of Randy Newman to the synth work of Giorgio Moroder.

The Chunk of Change EP was originally put together as a (belated) Valentine's Day present to Angelakos's girlfriend which then prompted him to give it out to friends and fellow students at Emerson College. Angelakos wrote and recorded the entire album by himself and it only hints at what is to come from this extremely talented perfectionist. The production of the recording, brief, sporadic and explosive, worked towards the development of Angelakos's signature euphoric and blissfully melancholic sound.