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The Hives
The Black and White Album
By Brian Baker
Well over a decade ago, five Swedish teenagers swore to each other that they would craft three half-hour slices of garage punk perfection as their recorded introductory trilogy and take over the world in the process. The Hives proved better than their word, as their trio of albums — 1997’s Barely Legal, 2000’s Veni, Vidi, Vicious and 2004’s Tyrannosaurus Hives — crashed into the public consciousness like a runaway mine car and set the quintet on a similarly frenetic touring schedule to meet live demand for their abbreviated but brain boiling set list.
Inherent in that decade-old oath was the idea that after three albums, the Hives would take their sound in a new direction. With the release of The Black and White Album, the Hives deliver on that promise as well, pushing their visceral rock spasms just beyond the confines of the garage and into the realm of elemental rock bombast. Blending the bedrock riffage of Angus Young (“Try It Again”) with the split atom swing and swagger of Raw Power-era Iggy Pop (“Tick Tick Boom,” “Hey Little World”) while adding flourishes that recall early Cheap Trick (“You Got It All...Wrong”) and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (“A Stroll Through Hives Manor Corridors”), the Hives plow through The Black and White Album’s 14 tracks with a channeled ferocity and chaotic deliberation. Utilizing a surprising cast of producers (including Pharrell Williams and Dennis Herring), the Hives once again smash rock ’n’ roll’s vanity mirror and reassemble the shards into their own wonderfully jagged punk reflection.
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