Once we have a song, we rehearse to get it "gig-ready". This might be a sound close to the eventual recording but sometimes the production heads in a completely different direction. Marionette is a prime example of this since there's no way we could replicate that layered sound with just the two of us on stage. One day, we might play with a bigger ensemble of guest musicians and try to re-create it. We can hope.
A lot of this time is spent trying to build a kind of "musical muscle-memory" for the song to make it seem effortless. As ever, though, there's a balance to be struck. There's a certain naivete in earlier renditions which can be really appealing depending on the song. As you get more rehearsed, the result can be a bit more sterile, which suits other kinds of songs. In our case, we probably err towards the former: there's a cool energy to recordings made while the band are still in the process of learning the song.
In any case, there are usually gigs to play, and there's no better way to sharpen up a track than playing it in front of people, so we rehearse to get to the stage where we're happy to perform the song publicly. Especially if we can get a show or two with the song under our belt before recording, we can try things out and see what works. We will make simple recordings with our phones in the rehearsal sessions and of our shows so we can listen back to check if it's really working. If the song can grab you from one of these, then it'll really hit on a "proper" recording.