SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE have been making thrilling and beguiling “collage rock” for the better part of a decade. Across four albums, they’ve stretched the boundaries of genre with songs that often abruptly contort from inviting hooks to menacing bursts of noise and sample-based chaos. With their new EP i’m so lucky, the Philadelphia trio of Zack Schwartz, Corey Wichlin, and Rivka Ravede close the chapter of 2021’s ENTERTAINMENT, DEATH with four tracks that count among the most confident, dynamic, and streamlined music of their careers so far. This is the band at its most lucid and emotionally transparent. Work on i’m so lucky started during a transitional period in the band members’ lives. In the summer of 2022, Schwartz and Rivka ended their romantic relationship after being together for over 10 years. “I don’t know if anybody was sure we would continue doing the band. ” says Schwartz. “But then we sorted it out slowly and we just all wanted to get back to work.” The entire four-song release, recorded at their new studio in Philly, captures all sides of the band. These tracks feel alive and unfussy: a document of a band in control and pushing themselves even further. “We’ve been trying to make some of the newer stuff less maximalist and just focus on what we can accomplish live,” says Schwartz. “It’s not that these songs are simpler: They’re just different and have more space, more room to breathe.”
