"Holiday! Hide away! Soon you’ll find the answer! Suuuuunnn! Suicide is a shame!"
You might think that I'm reciting the works of a singing participant from the Hare Krishna. That is not entirely correct. Actually, I'm reciting lyrics from the debut album of the Polyphonic Spree called The Beginning Stages Of…
The Polyphonic Spree consists of 24 men and woman in long white gowns who make music that sounds like the Flaming Lips and Belle & Sebastian, but without the "negative" emotions that those bands have in their songs. The Spree only wants happy songs, apparently, so you won’t get a "Feeling yourself Disintergrate" or a "Fox in the Snow" on The Beginning Stages of…. Only happy thoughts! Only positive emotions! Nothing will stop you from emerging yourself completely in the beautiful arranged music (I didn’t except any less from 12 band members who play an instrument), and jump through the room while shouting "Follow the day and reach for the sun!"
Or will it?
The Beginning Stages of… ends with a track called "A Long Day." Supposedly some experimental avant-garde song, it can be measured to the most dreadful boring experiments by the likes of Yoko Ono and Laurie Anderson. To put it simple: it’s almost 37 minutes full of sampled "aah" en "oooh" voices, arranged in a way that it should somehow resemble a melody. The only thing it does is getting on my nerves. Don’t get me wrong, I like experimental music, but 37 minutes of buzzing voices is too much, even for me.
But off course, you could recite Dizzee Rascal by shouting "Oh well!" and use the ‘stop’ button on your CD player where it is made for. "Hey it’s the sun! And it makes me smile!"
1. Have a Day / Celebratory
2. It's the Sun
3. Days Like This Keep Me Warm
4. La La
5. Middle of the Day
6. Hanging Around the Day, Pt1
7. Hanging Around the Day, Pt2
8. Soldier Girl
9. Light and Day / Reach for the Sun
10. A Long Day
More about: The Polyphonic Spree
