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Review: Jack Foley
IT'S been three years since The Hives crashed onto the musical
scene with their barnstorming album, Your New Favourite Band.
But while it's undoubtedly good to have their short, sharp bursts
of lively garage-punk back, the sound doesn't feel quite so fresh
this time around, and there are times when things become a little
wearying.
Tracks tend to blur into one and there is very little to choose
between some, making Tyrannosaurus Hives a curiously
flat affair at times.
That said, when they're good, they really rock, and fans of their
punk-laden Seventies-based firecrackers, and stomping Sixties
r'n'b numbers will no doubt have a blast.
The single, Walk Idiot Walk sets the standard, unashamedly
crashing through your speakers like a rioting, loud-mouthed yob,
and refusing to calm down for even one of its 34 minutes' running
time.
The stop-start guitar antics of the opening moments of Two-Timing
Touch and Broken Bones could easily veer into the classic
(I'm Not Your) Stepping Stone; while the sound of the
stomping Sixties is effortlessly recaptured in the dancefloor
bound A Little More For Little You.
Such moments find the Swedish five-piece at their absolute swinging
best, and Tyrannosaurus Hives feels like a wild party
as a result.
Pelle Almqvist's throaty lyrical style also gives rise to the
suspicion that the lead singer may have laid down each of the
records after a particularly heavy night on the town - Jagger
and co, eat your heart out!
And the rapid-fire chorus of Dead Quote Olympics could
easily have been ripped right out of the Clash's songwriting book.
But the album stops someway short of rivalling the classic status
of its predecessor due to the fact that certain tracks feel as
though the band are on auto-pilot.
This is never more apparent than during numbers such as B
Is For Brutus and Missing Link, which really feel
like album fillers.
So while there's no danger of Tyrannosaurus Hives spelling
the premature extinction of The Hives just yet, some sort of greater
progression may be necessary to keep the fans tuned in by the
time the next album swings around.
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