The Hives ‘The Black And White Album’
The Hives ‘The Black And White Album’ The original garage rock movement burned with a fierce incandescence over a compressed time period between 1965 and 1968. Aping The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, Them and a variety of British invasion bands that alerted them to their indigenous musical heritage, American kids armed themselves with cheap guitars and gnarly fuzzboxes to lay the foundations of what would later become punk rock.
Fast forward to the start of the 21st century and The Hives, along with The Strokes and The White Stripes, re-awakened interest in primordial riffing that in turn instigated a hip-thrusting repost to the introspective plodding that was clogging up the airwaves of the time like so much fatty residue.
By garage rock’s own twisted logic, The Hives should have been snuffed out a long time ago. Six years on since they unleashed the seismic calling card that was ‘Your New Favourite Band’, surely their snotty bursts of ramalama would be redundant if not tired? While 2004’s disappointing ‘Tyrannosaurus Hives’ suggested as much, ‘The Black And White Album’ finds the Swedish quintet high on a shot of invigorating adrenochrome and painting broader strokes from a wider palette.
The input from a variety of producers including Jacknife Lee and Pharrell Williams may imply a paucity of ideas but what we have here is a band breaking out of its own self-imposed barriers. Williams’ guiding hand is evident on the groove of ‘T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S’ as the band encroaches Chic’s section of the dancefloor while ‘Well All Right!’ swings in ways that until recently would never have been uttered in the same breath as their names. Elsewhere, Jacknife Lee polishes The Hives sound on ‘Hey Little World’ to a glistening sheen as keyboards bubble under the surface of the noise above.
This isn’t to suggest an about turn. If anything – and, as evidenced by the explosive one-two of ‘Tick Tick Boom’ and ’Try It Again’ that easily matches the visceral thrills of ‘Hate To Say I Told You So’ – The Hives have consolidated the charms that made them so appealing in the first place. Likewise the teeth-grinding burst of ‘You Got It All…Wrong’ where the band sounds leaner and more muscular than ever before. Such is the ferocity of their trademark antics that the drunken nod to Krautrock in ’A Stroll Through Hive Manor Corridors’ and ‘Won’t Be Long’’s oriental backdrop come as something of a welcome relief.
An unexpected rollercoaster ride from start to finish, The Hives might just well be your new favourite band all over again.
Julian Marszalek
The Hives ‘The Black And White Album’ (Polydor) Released October 15th 2007
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