For those who lie awake at night wondering whether The Polyphonic Spree have another album in them, there is some good news. The Spree may have fallen off the map but Swedish 29-piece indie-gospel ensemble I’m From Barcelona are here to fill the football-team shaped void left behind.
From a distance it is not necessarily easy to distinguish between the two groups: while eschewing cult robes and scary middle American grins, I’m From Barcelona’s recent Let Me Introduce My Friends cleaves rigorously to the Spree’s patented formula of terrifyingly uplifting melodies and group-hug lyrics. Cumulatively the results are both exalting and wearying: as an umpteenth affirmative ditty rumbles by, one finds oneself craving a darkened room and Leonard Cohen box set.
In the flesh, I’m From Barcelona prove no less disquieting. Showering the audience in red balloons, they chant and holler with forced zaniness and wield their guitars as if they were party hooters. Yet, frontman Emmanuel Lundgren’s songbook is not the equal of his primary-colour bombast: opener ‘Treehouse’ flogs a decent hook to death; later there are dreary call-and-response exchanges with a crowd which seems notably less enthusiastic than the band.
As a spectacle, I’m From Barcelona are undeniably a thing to behold. Certainly, squeezing 29 musicians onto the Whelan’s stage hints at a Dr Who-like ability to bend and twist the fabric of space. Sadly, Barcelona’s Wagner-goes-dayglo pop formula ultimately asks too much of the listener. Songs that invite you to share their elation are the life-blood of pop. Music which insists you join the party no matter what has no place in the pantheon.