Some eight years ago, your correspondent reviewed Tyrannosaurus Hives, by Swedish rockers The Hives. Even at that point, The Hives’ schtick – a sort of novelty rock accompaniment to the early noughties garage rock boom – was starting to seem old, so it’s fair to say I didn’t hold out much hope for the latest offering from Howlin’ Pete Almqvist, Dr. Matt Destruction and the boys.
In which context, Lex Hives, comes as a pleasant surprise. In fairness, The Hives were always a talented outfit, and released a couple of brilliantly uproarious singles, ‘Hate To Say I Told You So’ and ‘Main Offender’, earlier in their career. They also have an appealing – and very Scandinavian – deadpan sense of humour, as evidenced by the title of their 2001 compilation album, Your New Favourite Band. The band’s best qualities are to the fore on Lex Hives, which, unsurprisingly, finds The Hives playing to their strengths and delivering an album of energetic and dynamic punk pop. Throughout, the band subtly incorporate enough variation on the basic template to ensure the album remains engaging: there’s the Stooges-esque opener ‘Come On’ (sole lyric: “Come on... everybody come on!”); the Bowie-style rocker ‘Go Right’; and the wailing, Ramones-like punk thrash ‘1000 Answers’.
The tempo varies between fast and very fast – and when they do actually slip into a slower groove, as on the bluesy, melancholic ‘Without The Money’, they keep the song very short and promptly launch into another howling punk stomper.
If your looking for straightforward rock thrills, you could do far worse than Lex Hives.