#post present medium

Soileau-Pratt sings, as always, with a little wobble, the waver in her voice conveying sincerity and depth of feeling. She can sound a bit fragile, though she holds her own here, with a belt that rides out over a layered, contentious instrumental sound. The vulnerability, though, is always there. It meshes with her wide-eyed lyrics, which find psychedelic epiphanies in the most ordinary of topics. “What Carries Me Through Frozen Blue,” for instance, concerns violent weather and long-distance driving but turns mystical in the chorus: “What carries weight and can carry me forward through frozen blue and green?” It’s the interplay between the two guitars, one thrashing out the eighths, the other pinging and moaning a country blues, that makes this track reverberate. Controlled chaos and emotional catharsis exist alongside personal introspection here. Small, individually felt phenomenon become a lens for viewing the cosmos.

Soileau-Pratt has always had a way with melody, mussed up and casual, but inherent in her songs. The new band increases the messiness, but also, somehow, clarifies exactly what we have here: well-crafted songs that — however yelped and cried and tipsily crooned — have never sounded better. Good stuff, and a significant advance for The Spatulas.

Beehive Mind isn’t a showy record, but nor is it a shy one. “Somewhat Alike,” a winding mid-tempo romp, is representative. The band builds an organic cacophony out of eddying guitar and an articulate, just-right rhythm section; the swirl never overwhelms, but persists, reinforcing the song’s momentum. While March Chant often thrived in dissonance, with its psychedelia shaded no wave, Beehive Mind blooms naturalistic, humming and buzzing like a walk in the woods. That’s a credit to the band’s unfussy instrumental cohesion and, in particular, to the texture created by Lila Jarzombek’s intuitive lead guitar. You hear it on “Somewhat Alike,” when she grinds off a storm of sparks that clouds and complicates vocalist and rhythm guitarist Miranda Soileau-Pratt’s intrepid chord progression, or when a spiral of acute notes poke melodic pinholes in “The Long Way”’s homey atmosphere.

In Beehive Mind’s folky, punky weave of noise and tuneful DIY sensibility, you can also hear the influence of the Dunedin sound. Soileau-Pratt has cited The Bats, in particular, as being formative, which is apparent in the baroque jangle of “The Long Way” or the bright, relentless “Maya.” 1960s garage rockers like The Kingsmen, or The Sonics on “Have Love, Will Travel,” come to mind in the album’s edgier moments. “Shedded Life,” for instance, shows this other side of The Spatulas. It kicks off with Jon Grothman’s stern, rubbery bass before the rest of the band joins in. There’s more menace in the music here. Kyle Raquipiso drums with a greater tension while the guitars march, sheer and resolute under an urgent Soileau-Pratt — as I was on March Chant, I’m reminded of Patti Smith at her most righteous and belligerent. Soileau-Pratt is a flexible and emotive annunciator and, Smith aside, can evoke singers as disparate as Nico or Joanna Newsom – her wide vowels on the very Nico “Somewhat Alike” line “are you forever drowning?” or her crinkled croon on the closer, “Frontotemporal,” respectively.

Perhaps the most moving and telling song is the title track. A glistening guitar sets us off on the same wistful path as Bill Direen’s “Do You” before gathering forward on an eloquent bassline. The feeling is similar to the simple, sparkling melancholy of Beat Happening’s “Indian Summer,” but lusher. As “Beehive Mind” ebbs and flows, a drone streams off of the entire band, highlighting each player but holding them together as a collective. That unfussy cohesion again. Because “Frontotemporal” is just voice and a single guitar, “Beehive Mind” is the last time we hear The Spatulas swaying and dipping, seeking as one. Plenty of groups play well together, but The Spatulas play affectionately together. It’s communal music. We should all be so lucky to have friends like these. If you happen to, consider starting a band.