On its third proper full-length and first for new label TVT, Texas supergroup -- in numbers, that is --
Polyphonic Spree, the only rock & roll band to boast a full size choir as part of its recording and touring incarnations, ditch the robes in favor of black military style outfits with red crosses stitched properly into place and displayed prominently. Director Mike Mills named the album. The
PS's frontman and chief composer
Tim DeLaughter scored his debut feature film
Thumbsucker for the indie big screen (after the death of its original composer
Elliott Smith). Musically,
The Fragile Army is both a return to tried and true methods and simultaneously, a departure. The enormous sound of the
PS, with its tightly structured compositions by
DeLaughter and
Julie Doyle hasn't changed that much. One can hear elements of every big rock production band from
the Flaming Lips and
Mercury Rev to
David Bowie in its sonic mix. And
PS's trademark sunshine-drenched pop symphonica hasn't disappeared, or even taken a hiatus. It's here. What's new is a more textured melancholy in the darker, or at least sadder-themed songs that appeared first on the group's
Wait EP earlier in 2007. There is equal weight given to both.