SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE – YOU'LL HAVE TO LOSE SOMETHING

If you've listened to SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE for more than a minute their defining style makes itself very clear. Songs assembled from a steady stream of left turns, a constant upending of what has come before it. When it works well on the record it’s sublime, these snapshots sculpting little scenes, feeding just enough to intrigue but remain elusive. Take STRANGER ALIVE for instance, which moves through bristling electronics into breezy indie-pop, all the while drawing seasick brass and twanging Bond-theme guitars into its orbit.

However, when it doesn’t connect, as on THE CUT DEPICTS THE CUT, these mutations feel needy, like they're born out of a fear the listener will get bored if there aren’t fireworks every 15 seconds, rather than it being necessarily what is best for the song. It is unfortunately a feeling that rears its head time and again through YOU'LL HAVE TO LOSE SOMETHING.

In fact, the record is at its best when they allow an idea time to breathe. FOUND A BODY splits the difference between sultry R'n'B and treacly In Rainbows balladry, and grows in a way that feels wholly organic, while closer EARTH KIT ebbs and flows through a murky creek of synth and string to marvellous, moving effect.

There is something enlivening about a band so committed to following their nose at any given moment, but it does mean that this changeable quality is a necessary inevitability.

Listen to: STRANGER ALIVE, EARTH KIT, FOUND A BODY