Philadelphia four-piece the Spirit of the Beehive are the sort of woozy, musically meandering outfit who once would have been lazily dismissed as a “stoner band”. Of course these days, when weed is legal in a number of US states and even Christopher Biggins is blazing up on ITV, that label no longer feels like such an insult. The band’s third album, Pleasure Suck, takes the lo-fi collage approach of the likes of the Elephant 6 collective – in particular the psych folk of the Olivia Tremor Control – and makes it wilder and weirder, smothering it in layers of distortion, vocal samples and synth smears. Melodies tantalisingly wash in and out of focus, ideas are developed and abandoned at the drop of a hat in favour of something more interesting – a sudden stab of noise rock, say, or a limpid freak-folk interlude. In lesser hands such capriciousness might prove annoying, but here there’s always the thrilling possibility of something new just around the corner. And when the band stumble upon something truly brilliant – such as the power-pop climax of standout track Ricky (Caught Me Tryin’) – they grip on to it for dear life.
