The Hives

Lex Hives

Written by: PP on 26/06/2012 06:21:37

The Hives, one of the biggest music exports out of Sweden, have been awfully quiet lately. It has been five years since the rather mediocre "The Black & White Album" which saw the band experiment with R'n'B influence in the midst of their classic garage rock formula to their detriment. Hence most people wrote the band off as an expired product especially because it had been a while since their previous chart blasters "Walk Idiot Walk" and "Hate To Say I Told You So", or any other songs that made the difference in the first place.

If you were a fan of their older material, however, then I have some good news for you, because it seems like the band have spent the better part of the last five years regrouping and revitalizing their sound. "Lex Hives", their fifth studio album, is a regressive record in that it scraps all the bad moves taken on "Black & White" and returns the band to their trademark high-energy garage punk assault that they became famous for on "Barely Legal". It might not contain another chart buster like the couple mentioned earlier, but I'll be damned if "Patrolling Days", "Go Right Ahead", and "Wait A Minute" aren't among the best songs The Hives have written during their career. It's also refreshing to hear a band that has refused to compromise their sound further despite mainstream success and the pressure that it brings, and has realized that maybe, just maybe, musical evolution isn't always beneficial. Sometimes doing a Bad Religion and writing songs according to an identical, tried-and-tested formula is exactly what is needed, and nowhere else is this more true than for The Hives. Nobody ever wanted this band to write anything but the three-chord garage punk tracks that sound a little like The Strokes and White Stripes competing against each other on a F1 racing track.

"Lex Hives" is therefore fast, full of energy, and convincing all-around. It sounds like The Hives are having fun again, which shows big time in the guitar hooks and high tempo that drives the vast majority of songs on the record. That's an element that was largely missing from the last album, and fans can only look forward to hearing The Hives deliver again what they do best: frenetic, maddeningly catchy garage punk with distorted vocals that often cross the border into screaming while still remaining completely accessible for the radio rock crowds.

8

Download: Patrolling Days, Go Right Ahead, These Spectacles Reveal The Nostalgics
For the fans of: The Vines, The White Stripes, The Strokes all on speed
Listen: Facebook

Release date 01.06.2012
Disque Hives

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