The Polyphonic Spree

Billed as a “choral symphonic pop,” the music on The Polyphonic Spree’s first disc The Beginning Stages of…The Polyphonic Spree is not your average radio noise. The band’s ethereal sound might aptly be described as what the Partridge family would sound like if there were twenty-two of them and they all got a hold of some ecstasy pancakes.

The brainchild of Tim DeLaughter (formerly of Tripping Daisy), The Polyphonic Spree is notable as a spilling over of artistic energies—the result of art that has grown beyond its bounds. Their music plays as if it were the soundtrack to a dream—that dream where you are flying through the clouds, effervescent with life-love. The composition ranges from acoustic guitars and piccolo to organ and cello, mixed with of course, plenty of la-la’s (one song even named “La La”). All of which are accompanied by triumphant horns, arranged in “Sections” rather than songs. Of the eleven horn sections, seven of them have the word “day” in them and a couple more refer to the “sun”—and rest assured that the remainder don’t speak of the dark doom awaiting the planet. It’s a happy disc. It really is.

Contrary to the atypical, there is real value in some sections of the album. An inherent energy and power in the singing, definitely different than your garden-variety pop. The song “Soldier Girl” is particularly impressive in scope and delivery. The voices and instrumentation are impeccably combined, with an upbeat cherubic tone that is missing from most of today’s music.

But it’s inescapable that this could’ve been more. Most of the songs are relatively similar, and the repetition only adds to the lack of lasting impact. A bonus disc was included in the package that indicated that the sections could’ve been better. They were mostly reprises of sections on the disc as played at radio station sessions, but they had twists and powerful spikes not evident in the record itself. It seemed a more loose translation of what the band was trying to get across, and this lent to the music’s vibrancy.

I appreciate the utter originality of this effort by The Polyphonic Spree, but was somewhat disappointed when the freshness wore off.

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