I am a man alone on an island, surrounded by thirty dancing loons in multicoloured robes. Stranded in isolation, I scream to the sand, the sea and the palm trees that The Polyphonic Spree’s 2004 album Together We’re Heavy is a maximalist masterpiece of pop music. Its multi-part suites of Broadway classicism and sprawling psychedelics lived up to its title, and then some – precisely the kind of thing that a band of the Spree’s sheer size and scope was born to create.

Yet, ever since then, the band have never quite managed to capture the same magic again; condensing their arrangements into tight three-minute happy-capsules on follow-up The Fragile Army, something got lost in translation. The shorter songs and more compact (read: repetitive) arrangements made the band’s swelling ranks seem redundant, once again reducing the entire concept of the band to near-gimmick status. On Yes, It’s True, The Spree seem to be making a break with their past in many ways – eschewing the ”Section” headings that precede their song titles, and dressing up in matching paisley shirts rather than the jumpsuit uniforms which represented their last album - but musically, they’re repeating the formula, with continually diminishing returns.

What The Polyphonic Spree appear to have turned into over the past two LPs is a power-pop band, that most nebulous of genres which relies on economy, in terms of both songwriting and arrangements. Whistles and bells are to be used sparingly, if at all – the notable exception to the rule would be the ranked masses of the New Pornographers, who at least have more than one distinctive songwriter/vocalist to shake things up. Tim DeLaughter, while as charismatic as any cult leader, simply doesn’t have the versatility to carry it off on his own. And, let’s be honest, for all the extraneous instruments and voices, it’s his show and his message. And that message isn’t all that clear to begin with.

The album’s relentless continued sugar-rush only serves to dull its own effect – euphoria is one thing when you don’t expect it, but a few listens to Yes, It’s True feels like the second or third go round on a rollercoaster - when you can pinpoint the precise moment of uplift, it gets a whole lot less fun to ride. The band’s messages seem even more tired when welded to such tired musical backdrops. On Together We’re Heavy, at least the lyrics were wrapped in sweeping, multi-part epics – hell, they were even phrased somewhat more inspiringly than “Hold yourself up, aim right for the sky!” Even more perplexing is ‘You’re Golden’, a sincere love song that aspires to the epic (and is, admittedly, graced with a gorgeous reverse-guitar solo) – especially when, given the Kickstarter campaign which funded it, DeLaughter rails against “your phone with an i” and “your Facebook likes your Instagram pride.” Likewise, the Fl*ming L*ps-xeroxing ‘Carefully Try’ ends with a cringeworthy ’DJ’ announcing “Aah yes, the sounds of the seventies from…The Polyphonic Spree”, as if the listener was unable to get the joke for themselves. For a band who aspire to the timeless, these instantly-dated signifiers are more than a little bit laughable.

The exception to Yes, It’s True‘s hyperactive drudgery is, it must be said, a huge one - the kind of song where the earth stops turning until you decide to play it again. Living up to every promise the band ever made, ‘What Would You Do?’ makes for a bombastic career highlight, with the potential for unfathomably universal mind-altering joy. There’s no slow build here – just a relentless positive jam of self-worth and , albeit with some of the darkest corners DeLaughter has yet trodden lyrically. “What would you do if you could bring back all the dead?” he asks himself, “I’d bring back the ones who took a part of my heart when they left.” It’s the sound of a man aware of his tiny place on a gigantic earth, with a headful of wishes (“What would you do with the strength of a thousand men? I’d pick up a thousand cool people, and I’d spread ‘em around!”). To make another tired Flaming Lips comparison, The Polyphonic Spree have written their ‘Do You Realize??’, but rather than copping Wayne Coyne’s grandeur, DeLaughter’s conclusion is somewhat more down to earth – “We’re tragic, we’re human, we’re beautiful – don’t ever forget.” Then the music bottoms out, the flutes flutter, and the whole thing circles its way back to a storming conclusion.

Tim DeLaughter and co are a band who are always worth following, simply because there’s no band operating on this sheer scale. Yet, while it’s likely to be the most enthusiastic record you hear all year, Yes, It’s True is probably the band’s weakest album yet. That said, The Polyphonic Spree will never be Just Another Band, so even when they’re at their least inspired, there’s something reassuring about knowing they exist in the first place.