Lex Hives
Five years after *The Black and White Album*, which found the group collaborating with Pharrell Williams, The Hives are back at full force, playing their trashy garage-punk rock with their usual abandon. \"Come On\" is 68 seconds of the group yelling \"Come on!\" Such cheekiness is The Hives\' calling card. They buzz with energy through the new wave groove of \"Wait a Minute\" and the Joan \"I Love Rock \'n\' Roll\" Jett power chords of \"I Want More.\" \"Take Back the Toys\" adds a strutting step that evokes memories of The New York Dolls while cruising into the future with a vocal track that\'s grittily altered by production effects. Several tunes blast past in less than two minutes, with \"These Spectacles Reveal the Nostalgics\" recalling the wistful feel of classic \'60s girl-group pop. \"My Time Is Coming\" starts with a creepy vocal and keyboard before slashing the night. There isn\'t a false step here, just plenty of high-energy rock \'n\' roll. The deluxe edition features two additional tracks: the pounding \"High School Shuffle\" and the manic \"Insane.\"
On the Swedish garage rock group's fifth album, their proper followup to 2007's The Black and White Album, it sounds like they're still figuring things out.
Like the black-and-white suits they’re so fond of, The Hives’ sharp, stylized garage rock has always made the most of a narrow palette. Widening that palette didn’t pay off so well on 2007’s misleadingly labeled The Black And White Album. Bearing flashes of electro and a Tom Waits-ish waltz, Black And White is The…
A continuation of the Swedes' disposal of the garage punk limitations they set themselves when they first started out, and a reminder that their word is still law.
When you think about it, it’s kind of absurd that The Hives are even still around at this point. The Swedish garage-punk…
Five years is a long wait between albums for almost any artist, but especially for a band like the Hives, who seemed to have such a tight grasp on who they are and what they do that they could practically churn out cartoonishly catchy garage punk in their sleep.
Where the Ramones' punk mission and pop love provided a reliable end result, The Hives' output is driven by their unswerving affinity for garage rock.
The Hives - Lex Hives review: Being the Hives means never having to say you're sorry (or relevant).
Don't be fooled by the top hat and tails that they've got, The Hives is still the dirtiest garage band on the block. The high velocity Swedish quintet's fifth album marks a change in sartorial terms, as anyone who spotted vocalist Howlin' Pelle Almqvist doing his cartoonish Boris-at-the-Bullingdon, rubber-hipped Jagger swagger on Later this week will have seen. But in musical terms it is classic riff sandwich business as usual. Lex Hives is so old school maybe it should be released on wax cylinder rather than download.