The Polyphonic Spree
Together We're Heavy
On Sale Now
For $10.78

When lead singer of Tripping Daisy, Tim DeLaughter, lost a close friend and fellow bandmate, he fell into an upward spiral that lead him to become the founding member of The Polyphonic Spree. He counteracted depressive tendencies by forming an allegiance. Armed with a musical militia, parading around in fully clad white robes, The Spree impudently adopted optimistic zeal that brightly contrasted itself from the morose sound of mainstream success acts like Evanescence. They reveled in their idyllic tirades, invading the stage like a choir full of overmedicated hippies. Plastered with convincing, glowing smiles and writing catchy tunes about sunshine, they were also endearingly cool. Here is a band that doesn’t actively impart manic melodies of melancholy or infinite sadness, which sometimes pervades everyday existence. They are all about love, sunshine, lollipops, and raindrops. The Spree is a cult of colorful personalities, equipped with assorted instruments and bouncy buoyancy. Now for their second endeavor, they wear colorful robes instead of pasty white ones!

By now, the orchestral pop sonic soundscapes are abundantly prevalent in the indie rock circuit. Bands have strived to capture the progressive, awe-inspiring onslaught of The Flaming Lips’ 1997 masterpiece The Soft Bulletin. Everyone from Sparklehorse, Mercury Rev to The Delgados have all been releasing albums that have dynamically symphonic ambitions that suggest movie score sensibilities. The Spree are no exception but what makes them so distinctive is the fact that there are twenty members all playing live instruments with sheet music, coming off across as a college recital band gone right. However, their debut record, The Beginning Stages of the Polyphonic Spree, was a rather second-rate example of what they bring to venues across the globe. It was essentially a demo, recorded in two days, and needed stronger post-production mixing. Granted, one of the best songs ever conceived in the history of rock music, “Soldier Girl,” remains a staple on my IPOD. Often their music is like Lexapro for the ear canal. Their strength lies in their infectious live presentation. On record, they continue to be so-so, which is now officially represented in their rather middling sophomore release, Together We’re Heavy. Although the above-average studio construction is much more efficient and polished, they are running away from the gamut of promise they once showcased both live and during moments of their last album. Lyrics have grown increasingly more maudlin and preachy-keen, with DeLaughter sounding even more like a whiny Wayne Coyne clone. He needs to find his own voice.

Opening track, “The Long Day Continues,” starts off quite promisingly until by the song’s denouement, we hear, yet again, more proclamations about that big ball of fire in the sky. Enough about the SUN, fellas! But it gets worse when lines like “Don’t invest yourself in diamonds” come across as more demonically evangelical than extravagant rock-star poetry. What’s worse is that two of the middle tunes recycle the same chord structuring of “Have a Day,” from their first album. No one’s accusing them of being plagiarists of anyone’s material but their own. Musically, they still manage to burst with every instrument in the book. Horns swell, violins creep in, and sometimes it works. A lot of songs sound like Danny Elfman on heavenly helium allowing each instrument to breathe on its own. “Two Thousand Places” has surprises evocative of their live set, while first the overtly sappy single “Hold Me Now” probably would’ve been better as a Thompson Twins cover or another tune to cross-market in a commercial. The rather anti-climactic "When the Fool Becomes the King" displays a serious disadvantage with too many elaborate sections glued together in a superficially erratic fashion, sparking yawns instead of awes. The Spree needs to improve on their blemishes, which primarily revolve around repetitive Hallmark-card lyrics like “You got to be good, you got to be strong” accompanied by indistinguishable choruses. It would be nice to see them collaborate with a band like Sonic Youth and explore the darker side of life instead of merely rethreading the same turf, which was engaging at first, but is now beginning to grow tiresome and sadly predictable. Together they are heavy, and not once do they sound lazy, but more often than not, the record comes across as over-sweet and syrupy that the euphoria begins to wear off once the teeth start aching. If anything it serves as a souvenir to recalling how amazing their live performance can be. Hopefully, the live experience will more than likely enhance the unspectacular material presented here.

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