The Hives Albums (4)
'The Black and White Album'
Release Date 10/8/2007
Tracks 14
Label Universal
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Time and time again, the Hives have shown that they can crank out consistent, and consistently fun, garage rock. The Black and White Album's title alludes to the band's strict formulas for everything from color codes to dress codes to cleverly structured dumb rock, yet this is the album where the Hives break away from their routine -- they add some gray to the mix. At this point in their career, it's understandable that they'd want to break out of the mold, at least occasionally, even if they are the experts at honed, toned garage-punk. To that end, the band recorded with a host of different producers, from Dennis Herring (who worked on the bulk of the songs) to Pharrell Williams to Jacknife Lee, as well as on their own. Considering how many people worked on the album, it's a minor miracle that it has any cohesiveness at all, but the Hives nod to tradition by starting off with a bunch of sure-fire songs. "Tick Tick Boom" comes at your ears from all directions, full of snarling "yeah!"s and low-slung riffs that are tamped down like gunpowder before exploding on the choruses. "Hey Little World" is one of the band's best Stones-on-speed rockers in some time, and "You Got It All...Wrong" shows, once again, that nobody can write a put-down rave-up like the Hives can. If all the songs were this relentless, The Black and White Album could've lived up to its working title, The World's First Perfect Album, but the middle of the album finds the band taking risks. "A Stroll Through Hive Manor"'s tinny drum machine and horror show organ hints at the changes to come -- this is the first time a Hives album has had anything like an interlude on one of their albums before. Even small tweaks, like Howlin' Pelle Almqvist's more melodic vocals -- which recall Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos or even Billy Idol's dangerous croon -- on "Won't Be Long," or the cartoonish keyboards on "Puppet on a String," end up making a big difference on the Hives' sound. The more radical experiments are, not surprisingly, the album's most uneven moments. The Williams-produced "T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S." is a bit like the band's "Emotional Rescue": A mash-up of hip-hop-inspired beats, new wave keyboards, and garage rock guitars, it might be more interesting than good, but it's also a lot of fun. "Giddy Up!," however, is just plain weird, with hiccuped backing vocals and free-falling synths -- but, while it doesn't quite work, it's too quirky and memorable to be outright bad. That The Black and White Album closes with another batch of non-stop, quintessentially Hives rockers like "Square One, Here I Come" and "You Dress Up for Armageddon" suggests that the band knows that its fans don't necessarily come to them for experimentation. While the balancing act between the Hives' new and old approaches is a little lopsided, making this album less amazing than Tyrannosaurus Hives, The Black and White Album should satisfy most fans while giving them a few challenging moments to chew on, too. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
It's clear that a lot care goes into the Hives' seemingly immediate, fired-up sound: this is a band, after all, that has only released three full-length albums in its 11-year lifespan. While the 2002 collection Your New Favourite Band ended up winning the group many more fans thanks to its fortuitous timing with the garage rock revival craze (and also ended up being the band's most consistent release to date), it didn't do much to disguise the fact that the Hives hadn't released a new album since 2000's Veni Vidi Vicious. Two years later, Tyrannosaurus Hives arrives, and proves that the band isn't just a fossil from the days when everyone (or critics, at least) thought that the Hives and the other bands lumped in with the rock revival were going to change the face of pop music. It may have taken the Hives awhile to follow up Veni Vidi Vicious, but they didn't waste any time: Tyrannosaurus Hives is half an hour of highly compressed, high-contrast rock that is far and away the band's best album. As usual, the band's motto seems to be "get in, rock hard, get out," and the album's opening tracks, "Abra Cadaver" and "Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones" -- which boasts a chord sequence that sounds like a sped-up version of Paul Revere & the Raiders classic antidrug rant "Kicks" -- cut right to the chase. But, as with the rest of Tyrannosaurus Hives, these songs are more focused explosions than the nonstop firepower of "Hate to Say I Told You So" and "Main Offender." While recording the album, the Hives mentioned that they were especially inspired by Kraftwerk. Even though nothing here sounds like "Pocket Calculator" and the band hasn't forsaken its black-and-white dress code for Teutonic black and red, that band's influence is indeed all over Tyrannosaurus Hives, most literally on the breakup lament "Love in Plaster," which borrows a motorik beat and squiggly keyboards. More importantly, though, it's noticeable in the band's precise playing throughout the album and particularly on the single "Walk Idiot Walk," which initially sounds downright subdued compared to the Hives' previous singles, but eventually reveals itself as just a more elongated and tense deployment of their forces. Fortunately, this tightly engineered sound doesn't get hamper the band's energy; if anything, it offers a better platform for Pelle Almqvist's howling, especially on "No Pun Intended" and "Dead Quote Olympics." The refinement of the Hives' sound shows up in other ways, such as the excellent new wave soul rave-up "A Little More for Little You" and "Diabolic Scheme"' string-laden wails. Tyrannosaurus Hives might be a little more complex and polished than the Hives' earlier work, but it's not overthought at all; even though they've evolved, they know how to keep it simple, stupid. Crucially, the band remembers that garage rock is supposed to be catchy as hell as well as cleverly dumb, and even their toughest songs have hooks aplenty: "B Is for Brutus" has wonderfully prickly, reverb-drenched guitars and impatient pianos egging it on, and "See Through Head"'s silly "uh-uh-uh-uh-oh!" refrain just adds to its caustic charm. Songs like these once again prove how neutered-sounding most mainstream punk-pop (and indeed, quite a bit of nu-garage rock) really is. But the Hives lead by example; they were going before garage rock became a fad, and Tyrannosaurus Hives shows that they'll be able to keep going long after the fad has faded. ~ Heather Phares, All Music Guide
'Veni Vidi Vicious'
Release Date 1/1/2000
Tracks 12
Label Burning Heart
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Rousing, stompin' garage rock from these Swedes, with plenty of mod and frantic punk energy to keep you grooving along. "Party Party!" they seem to be saying, and you just want to join. This is definite change-up from the usual hyperspeed pop-ska-punk dross offered on Epitaph. Perhaps this arises from the fact that these guys are only distributed on Epitaph and yet are actually on the Burning Heart imprint. Plenty of fuzzed, struttin', propulsive guitar work on this disc to assault your ears. Well worth your time to take a spin. More records like this need to exist. [The Japanese edition offers several bonus features, including videos, a website connection, and three bonus tracks ("Untutored Youth," "Fever," and "Mad Man.")] ~ Jeremy Salmon, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The Hives launched the first salvo in their global assault on all that is lame in our culture with their debut album, 1997's Barely Legal, and there is little arguing that these guys had the right idea out of the gate. Emerging from Fagersta, Sweden (which, at least in 1997, was the rock equivalent of Absolutely Nowhere), the Hives set a high standard with their hot-wired fusion of garage rock tunes and punk rock speed and energy, and they hit the sweet spot just right, sounding tight enough to connect with unified force while still letting the frenzy of their forward momentum give the performances a bit of dizzy sway that indicates true rock & roll. If Barely Legal lacks an obvious "breakout hit" tune like "Main Offender" or "Hate to Say I Told You So," the rapid-fire assault of these songs is impressive indeed, and this disc plays like a brick of firecrackers that refuses to stop exploding until "Closed for the Season" crosses the finish line. And while the Hives rock like nobody's business here (especially the Siamese twin guitars of Vigilante Carlstroem and Nicholaus Arson), the real secret weapon is Howlin' Pelle Almqvist, whose cocky swagger actually communicates on tape, and is the perfect vehicle for his "We are cool, you are nothing" lyrical outlook. Veni Vidi Vicious was the album that let the world know who the Hives were and what they were all about, but Barely Legal let a clued-in few know about their monumental coolness three years ahead of the game, and for sheer rock action, it's as good as anything they've put to tape. ~ Mark Deming, All Music Guide
