July 23, 2002
Polyphonic Spree : Soldier Girl
Our Single Of The Week is a sweeping, sun-dappled and delightfully over-egged confection...
What you know already: there are 23 people in The Polyphonic Spree. They wear white robes, hail from Texas and are almost certainly under investigation from the CIA’s nutso religious cult-busting department. Almost incidentally, they produce music that makes Beach Boys at the giddy, maniacal height of their fireman’s helmet-and-sandpit period sound lo-fi: debut single ‘Soldier Girl’ features brass, strings, flutes, bird whistles, kettle drums, theremin, a massed choir, electronic burbles and what sounds like an over-zealous primary school recorder class. It’s a sweeping, sun-dappled and delightfully over-egged confection. It’s also possibly the only time that the words "like Grandaddy, except with God and cassocks instead of beards" will ever, ever be used as a compliment.
Pat Long
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