New West Records
2007
Live From Austin, Tx
About This Album
Listening to the Polyphonic Spree's studio recordings over the years has been a revelatory and sometimes frustrating experience. The reason is quite simple: excess. Not that excess in and of itself is a bad thing. In many cases it's the excess of joy and celebratory mass euphoria that Tim DeLaughter and crew put into their recordings that can be overwhelming at times and push the listener into spaces she or he might not otherwise even consider -- but to be taken there all the time is at times a bit much. Every band should have "problems" like these. That said, they are never irritating, not even slightly ridiculous. As a band they have put it out there on every record, holding nothing back. This is even true of the Fragile Army, a recording that offers new directions in this band and which combines Phil Spector-ish orgiastic excess, spiritual temerity, and the willful self-consciousness that allows emotion full reign in a blend of music that underscores emotion even while being outrageously sophisticated in structure, using the choir, woodwinds, and of course guitars, basses, drums, and keyboard. Theirs is the most aggressively tender music in pop. Forget the indie rock thing; this band has nothing to do with that whole ghetto.
Track List (try tracks 3,4,5,7 and 9)

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