The Hives - Tyrannosaurus Hives
(Interscope)
It’s been four years since The Hives’ last album, but, like The Stooges, Motörhead and Ramones before them, if you’ve heard one Hives’ song, you’ve heard ‘em all. (Of course, it helps that all their albums are written by the enigmatic Randy Fitzsimmons, alleged Svengali/manager/A&R contact, etc., who is also rumored to be guitarist Nicholaus Arson—although he vehemently denies this.) So the dozen tracks that make up their third album will please existing fans, but won’t necessarily make any new converts. Highlights include the quickening pulsebeat of “Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones” and the nice ‘n sleazy “Walk Idiot Walk,” which manages to excite in the finest New York Dolls tradition, despite a glaring guitar riff that was stolen right out from under “Clash City Rockers.”
Singer Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist’s overly dramatic narration on “Diabolic Scheme” falls somewhere between the Alex Harvey’s “Framed” and “The Tomahawk Kid,” Mick Farren’s “Memphis Psychosis” and Iggy’s “Turn Blue,” and I also liked the short, sharp burst of fresh air that is “See Thorough Head.” New school punkers like Green Day and Rancid could do worse than learning “Love in Plaster” and immediately adding it to their setlists, and the silly-yet-infectious “Dead Quote Olympics” reminds us that, despite all its misguided polemics and political posturing, punk could be hysterically funny as exemplified by the likes of Sham 69, The Lurkers and The Boys.
So, while there’s nothing you haven’t heard already, it’s still high energy, sweaty garage punk, and fans of old school British punkers like 999, Generation X and The Adverts who wonder where all the good bands went will find they’ve packed up their old kit bag and moved to Sweden.
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