THE POLYPHONIC SPREE
The Beginning Stages of The Polyphonic Spree
679 Records
· The Record of the Year has arrived (again).
Initially released and all but ignored less than 12 months ago, The Beginning Stages of The Polyphonic Spree reappears in stores slightly retouched and with full song titles in place (apparently making proceedings somewhat more palatable for North American audiences unaccustomed to a pop record full of songs merely titled "Sections 1" through "10").
Given a rare second chance, The Polyphonic Spree's debut deserves to be the runaway surprise smash of the year. Think of it as a sunny-eyed hipster conspiracy – if we all run out and pick up multiple copies for ourselves and our closest friends in time for Christmas, The Beginning Stages of... will make its way to the top of the charts, where it so rightfully belongs (and, in some alternate universe, where it has already has been for the past 52 weeks).
The primary source of The Polyphonic Spree's epic orchestral "popera" is, surprisingly, Tim DeLaughter, formerly of the early ’90s buzz-bin footnote Tripping Daisy. (Remember "I Got a Girl"?) Following the disintegration of his earlier group, due in part to the overdose suicide of guitarist Wes Berggren, DeLaughter returned to Texas in search of a band that could help him recreate the sound inside his head. Joined by 26 of his closest friends (imagine the horrors of co-ordinating even the most basic jam sessions), The Polyphonic Spree was born. From the mass choral shout-along of "It's The Sun" – "Hey it's the sun/ And it makes me shine" – to "Soldier Girl," with its lovelorn mash note to a "Girl so far away/ she makes my head spin around", The Beginning Stages of... is a pop music masterpiece from head to toe.
Sure, those twirling flutes may occasionally verge on twee annoyance, but just as orange is the new pink, genuine earnestness is the new post-ironic detachment (take just one listen to the revelatory B-side run-through of Bowie's "Five Years," and put away your bitter buttons). Oh, the songs!
While The Flaming Lips' Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots wasn't quite as coherent as The Soft Bulletin, and Mercury Rev's All is Dream leaves you feeling a little lost by the time it spirals off into the cyanide candy abyss, The Beginning Stages of The Polyphonic Spree upstages both records in spaced-out, Beach Boys-style songcraft and uplift. It's a record that wears out even the most in-depth thesaurus, leaving one to scrape the bottom of the barrel for new platitudes and comparisons. Listening to The Polyphonic Spree is like the world's greatest tantric sex on a bed of money floating through the nighttime streets of a snow-globe Manhattan.
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