With The Fragile Army, the new album for The Polyphonic Spree, the Dallas-based symphonic rock band has added a little edge to their act. Musically, lead singer/songwriter Tim DeLaughter has decided to put the guitars section on the front line, focusing the band a little more on rock ’n’ roll and a little less on the choir sound.

“We approached it more like a rock band,” says Julie Doyle, wife of DeLaughter and a co-founder of the band. “We wanted to get the urgency and the energy of our live show onto the album. It’s always been in the background of our music, but we wanted to change that.”

The 24-piece band, which has shed four members since their last output, Together We’re Heavy, has also gone with a little darker image—literally. DeLaughter & Co. have abandoned the customary white robes—which became multicolored robes on their last tour—for black army suits adorned with hearts, red crosses and ribbons.

According to Doyle, the new digs mimic the uniforms now sported by the United States Army. “The new military wear is not green or camouflage, it’s black and nondescript,” she explains. “And then we created our own universal symbols of peace—the crosses, the hearts, the ribbons—which are some things everyone in these times need to think about.”

Unfortunately for DeLaughter, Doyle and the rest of their good-hearted gang, their image is often more widely discussed than their music. While Doyle says it frustrates the band, she also thinks there’s a positive side to it.

“It definitely [bothers us],” Doyle says. “I mean, it’s OK. I think when your band or act creates something that has an impact on people and makes them talk, we think that’s cool.”

Doyle says the idea for uniforms began as a unifying concept for the ever-growing act and eliminated the distraction of having so many differently dressed people on stage. It also helped band members forget about their egos, reminding everyone that The Polyphonic Spree was one unit with the common goal of making music.

But their live shows, with their robes and their powerful, energetic choir, caused a frenzy of speculation about the band being a religious cult. Suddenly, The Polyphonic Spree became more interesting for their image—à la Kiss, Twisted Sister or The White Stripes—than for their unique and beautiful music.

But on The Fragile Army, the music outshines even their sparkling, white-robed image. Their first single, “Running Away,” sounds eerily similar to “Light and Day,” their acclaimed Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack addition, only with an even catchier chorus. “I’m projecting and reflecting desire/for you, to come into my life,” the choir exultantly blares in the opening line, and we’re equally glad to oblige them and enter.

Throughout the rest of the album, we’re happy to have acceptd their invitation: Even the band’s creepy black uniforms can’t stymie the unrelenting, colorful optimism of “Younger Yesterday,” and the opening stop-and-go riffs on “Get Up and Go” are hard to resist. “We Crawl,” an elegiac, slower song with occasional triumphant horns, is also an exciting change for the band.

So don’t worry, DeLaughter and Doyle, people should only talk about your music from hereon in. That is, of course, until you change your uniforms again.

July 1, Warsaw, 261 Driggs Ave. (at Eckford St.), B’klyn, 718-387-0505; 9, $25.