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The Polyphonic Spree
Together We're Heavy
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Resembling a secular alliance between Spiritualized and the Flaming Lips/Mercury Rev camps - an Up With People/Pink Floyd grandiosity coupled with orchestral Beatles' McCartney fluff-pop melodicism, main-man Tim Delaughter (formerly of Tripping Daisy) assembles 20 plus of his closest friends in white, flowing robes for a molto-voce/multi- instrumental orchestral/choral pop-rock extravaganza. It's like nothing anyone else is doing (with any success) right now, and critics and public alike are loving it! "It" is The Polyphonic Spree and their second release, 'Together We're Heavy' (and a perfectly apt title it is, 'cause they are). Their first release, 'The Beginning Stages of...', is beloved by many who knew of its existence, as it remained a rather underground, cult thing. This new release is a perfect extension of the first and is hitting big worldwide.
Utilizing some 10 vocalists (Delaughter being the lead singer/songwriter) and just about every instrument known to man in the western hemisphere (drums, bass, guitars, pedal steel, banjo, harp, keys, synth, winds, strings, horns, tympani, tubular bells, theramin, teeth [yep]), this is a baroque space-pop chorale singing uplifting secular hymns for the huddled masses, backed by sometimes rock, sometimes spacey, sometimes folky, always orchestral instruments. If you're an old grump, this disc will do one of two things for you: make you less of a grump, or... make you wanna jerk it outta your player and heave it against the wall. This is big "Oh Happy Day" music that uses dynamic range well, making the softer, vox-solo bits stand out in welcome relief from the wall-of-sound masses. Delaughter's voice reminds one of The Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne in its shakey, slightly off-kilter effect. (Question: Is this what you'd get if The Partridge Family and The Brady Bunch growed up and formed a mega-band?)
Unless you have become totally disimpassioned and desensitized to feeling and/ or emotion, Polyphonic Spree's 'Together We're Heavy' will touch a magic place in your heart. In the liner notes (which neatly fold out into a poster), there is one page containing one word only: HOPE. Why not listen and try to feel better about things. Lord knows in these times, it's just what the doctor ordered. It's a wonderful thing!
(PS: Also included is a 60 minute stereo DVD containig live concert footage, two videos, and a welcome interview with Delaughter which really helps to understand the ethos involved and puts the release in perspective ["energy" and "innocence" are invoked numerous times]...and the live footage is one of the strangest things this writer has ever seen, bringing to mind, oh, I don't know - The Manson family, perhaps?!.)
(PSS: and one caveat...being the paranoid, suspicious geezer I am, I wonder about people who are always happy, too happy - ya know what I mean? And from viewing the DVD, these people are always happy. How they got that way is open to conjecture.)
Release Date: July 13, 2004
Tracks: 10 - Time: N/A
Produced by: Eric Drew Feldman; The Speeker
Format: CD
Website: www.thepolyphonicspree.com
Track Listing:
Section 11 (A Long Day Continues/We Sound Amazed) / Section 12 (Hold Me Now) / Section 13 (Diamonds/Mild Devotion to Majesty) / Section 14 (Two Thousand Places) / Section 15 (Ensure Your Reservation) / Section 16 (One Man Show) / Section 17 (Suitcase Calling) / Section 18 (Everything Starts at the Seams) / Section 19 (When The Fool Becomes a King) / Section 20 (Together We're Heavy).
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