Textual Analysis of Take a Walk - Passion Pits

Take A Walk by by Passion Pits describe themselves as an, 'indietronica' band, which is a combination of indie and electric genres. They have released two albums in several countries and are well known for their alternative style.

The video follows a clever concept where we follow the journey of a little blue ball, as it gets thrown and bounces to many different people and places. The video is filmed from the ball's point of view the whole time, with the exception of the beginning and end. This is done very effectively and it really feels as it you are bouncing around the streets.

The visuals link to the lyrics in the fact that the whole song is about taking a walk - perhaps to clear your head and get some perspective, and this is represented by the journey the ball takes. It goes to a huge range of places, including neighbourhood cul-de-sacs, huge cities and rivers. The fact it was flying through the air caused me to wonder if this represents that by taking a walk, they are suggesting you should try to see things from a different point of view? Or alternatively that sometiems you need to take yourself out of normal situations in order to solve something?

The reason I am saying this is because the artists seemed to take an honest approach when writing the lyrics, talking about real situations. It documents the struggles of two men during America’s two worst recessions. One sells flowers outside of Penn Station in order to save up enough money to get his wife and family across the Atlantic only to have them bail on him shortly after their arrival. The other over-borrows and makes bad investments that go bust landing him in a cowardly state of poverty. Both men take then walks. I wondered if Passion Pits were suggesting that no matter what goes wrong, if you take a walk it will either lead somewhere else or at least provide a change of scene. This narrative is sort of evident within the music video, for instance neighbourhood homes suggest family life, however it does not follow it concretely.

There is no reference to the notion of looking - in a sexual form anyway; there are lots of shots where people are looking at the ball, for example when it gets bowled to a baseball player, so the only reference is very innocent.

Overall I really like the way the action is passed on. It makes it interesting for the audience to see where the ball will end up and shows the range of different people and places in only a ball's throw distance.