The Polyphonic Spree - 'Together We're Heavy' (Good)
4/5
By: Toby L
You know, 'The Beginning Stages Of...' wasn't really intended for release. It was an album-long demo, The Polyphonic Spree dabbling in lo-fi recording so as to merely unmask, unveil the prospects of their euphoric, soulful indie-pop expanse when committed to tape.
Trouble was, it was too good to let go once exposed. Hence a worldwide release. Hence 200,000 record-sales. Hence a Bowie tour. Hence their being heralded as one of the 21st Century's most engulfing and pertinent of new talents.
So, at last, second album 'Together We're Heavy' is the masterful, true realisation of leader Tim DeLaughter's intoxicating vision and intention - another ten 'sections' of uproarious, cacophonous musical grandeur. The Polyphonic Spree may number, on average, twenty-five, yet possess more scintillating, guiding focus than most all-too-common three or four person units.
That 'TWH' would prove more uplifting, spiritually elated than a Wembley Arena's worth of laughing-gas was to never be in dispute. This record is positively enlaced with near-hysterical joy. Even from the subtly mesmerising opening - a recommencement of 'The Beginning Stages'' closing-number 'A Long Day' - through to its second part, the 'Ziggy Stardust' bluster of 'We Sound Amazed', you're confounded by the grin that's just crept on to your face and rendered itself unmoveable; greedily, track-two and upcoming single 'Hold Me Now' provides further instantaneous trumpet-parping massiveness, irrevocable in its contagious glee.
Then we soon find ourselves with a coupling of compositions landmark enough to be accepted as Modern Standards - the searing words of wisdom of live-highlight 'Two Thousand Places' ('You've gotta be good... you've gotta be strong... you've gotta be two thousands places at once...'), and the epic ten and a half minutes of 'When A Fool Becomes A King', which at first opens as a piano-hammering pogo-along, prior to cascading into a whirl of dramatic yelps and intense, instrumental build-ups (only following a couple of seriously Mercury Rev-ish bouts of lunatic grandeur). They could well be the most engrossing, important rushes of sound you'll hear in 2004.
Littered with flourishes of winter, spring and summer - and, thankfully, little in the way of autumn - 'Together We're Heavy' is the entirely desirable happy pill you can purchase and not fear being arrested for. Head back, consume, savour.
Artists in this article: The Polyphonic Spree
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