Music Review Corner

[kingandy]

I have been meaning, for some while, to set some time aside to listen to the The Hives albums I've got sitting on my hard drive. I'm doing that now.

I am deciding that ... I don't like it. I quite like some of the composition, but while I have a definite soft spot for speed, metal guitar and discord (a la The Offsprings), The Hives are simply ... too discordant, too fast. Everything is set to jangle and jar and it's just ... it's just somebody hitting the drumkit as fast as they can and somebody else screeching into a microphone. I sort of want to like it - and there are indeed moments, fragments of sound that wouldn't be so bad if taken on their own - but for the most part all I can liken it to is the Frank Spencer Blues Explosion.

They're clearly competent musicians. It's just that the style of music that they're trying - successfully - to reproduce is grating, harsh and unpleasant.

The above was written while listening to Barely Legal; I have now moved onto Tyrannosaurus Hives which I gather is two albums further down the line, and was released after some degree of commercial success. Perhaps because of this, it is a vast improvement. Somehow without noticeably changing their arrangement or style it's coming out much more professionally and is not so unpleasant on the ear. (Maybe it's something in the production or just that they're more mature by this point and want to make music rather than shouting about it.) There are a couple of tracks that hearken back to the band's roots but because they're buried inside the rest of the album you don't mind so much.

I think I will keep Tyrannosaurus Hives and dump Barely Legal.

Comments

[masinkie.livejournal.com]

There is no requirement that you like The Hives.

[iamalsosam.livejournal.com]

The Hives are a band I forget sometimes that I like. It's admittedly dumb music, but they do what they do well. The first album is much rougher and faster, and if you're not generally a fan of punk, then you're probably not gonna like it. After that album, the sound is alot like garage bands from the '60s, and the boastful lyrics are really kind of funny. Even the first line of the first single from the new one is 'Yeah, I was right all along.' They're like a bunch of garage-rock robots.

[iamalsosam.livejournal.com]

On the first listen of the new Hives album, it's kind of 'eh' like their last one. I think their problem is that when they try to experiment a little, which means basing their sound on more electronic dancey shit, they can't seem to come up with decent songs. When they stick with the guitars, they're consistently good. I'm sure some of it will grow on me, and there ARE a few awesome tracks, but they haven't had a solid album since 'Veni Vidi Vicious.'