Barely Legal

Release type:What's this?
studio album
First released:
Sep 22 1997

Overview Edit

Barely Legal is an album released in September 1997 by a then-unknown Swedish group called The Hives, from Fagersta, Sweden. The album's title was a reference to their age, as all of the five members but one (the lead guitarist, Nicholaus Arson) had very recently turned 18, the same age that one may legally appear in a pornographic film.

The album itself shows the band at the peak of teen angst and its erratic, hyper-speed nature may find fans of the band's later albums shocked at how much the band's musical direction changed over the course of a decade. Unlike the aforementioned successors to Barely Legal, this album was not met with any significant commercial success because The Hives had not yet toured extensively outside of Sweden; the Garage Rock Revolution started by The Strokes, European hipsters, and video music networks did not yet exist; and their sound at this juncture was likely too abrasive to garner considerable mainstream success.

The album shows influence of hardcore punk and rockabilly. The album makes varied references to politics in songs such as Automatic Schmuck, which is a revolt against being a working-class stiff and Theme from..., which deals with poorly-directed attempts at fame, as well as a philosophical look at the effects of time in Well, Well, Well, but the album mostly consists of songs expressing teenage angst.

The album's second track, "A.K.A. I-D-I-O-T", had a video produced, but it was not commercially released until it was included as an extra on some pressings of Your New Favourite Band. The band later recorded an EP-single by the same name and featuring the same song, which saw the band in similar form before moving to the proto-punk influenced Veni Vidi Vicious sound two years later.

The album sleeve features three quotations from fake newspaper reviews. These quotations are originally from British newspapers referring to the Aldous Huxley novel Brave New World.

The Overview appearing in this section is attributed to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barely_Legal_(album). Portions of this Overview may be available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, version 3.0 or any later version, available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Additional terms may apply. See Wikipedia Terms of Use for details.

This particular version Edit

Record label:
unknown
Catalog number:
BHR 068
Release dates:
  • Nov 17 1997 in United States
  • Oct 9 2001

Genres

Garage Rock, Indie. Vote on Genres

What do Amazon.com customers think?

5 stars Seriously LOUD!
When I first heard of The Hives and got glimpse of them my curiosity was peaked and I listened to Veni Vidi Vicious. I thought it was a great album and listen to it frequently. BUT, after listening to Barely Legal I was completely blown away! These guys are the real deal. If you thought true hardcore/punk was dead, rejoice! Apparently it is alive and well in Sweden. This album captures the power and energy that made bands like the Misfits, Minor Threat, and others so great. The songs are short, …
Written by Jamilah Suarez "Phoenix Rising"
3 stars Raw and "Legal"
The Hives are one of the hottest bands around today, mingling Stooges-type punk with acid-penned songwriting. "Barely Legal" is a faster, punkier, nastier, harder album that came before their breakout album "Veni Vidi Vicious." It's immensely good, but it does suffer from an overabundance of soundalike songs.

It opens with a spoken intro to the band, which immediately leaps into a boiling rock song, which is only broken by Howlin Pelle occasionally saying "Well well well!", as if surprised by t…
Written by E. A Solinas "ea_solinas"

Track listing Edit

  • CD

    format:
    number:
    title:
    number name artist hh:mm:ss
    1
    Well, Well, Well
    1:01
    2
    a.k.a. I-D-I-O-T
    2:12
    3
    Here We Go Again
    2:12
    4
    I'm a Wicked One
    1:45
    5
    Automatic Schmuck
    2:17
    6
    King of Asskissing
    1:46
    7
    Hail Hail Spit n' Drool
    1:27
    8
    Black Jack
    2:45
    9
    What's That Spell?... Go to Hell!
    1:41
    10
    Theme From...
    2:49
    11
    Uptempo Venomous Poison
    1:13
    12
    Oh Lord! When? How?
    1:42
    13
    The Stomp
    1:54
    14
    Closed for the Season
    2:34

Credits Edit

Surely someone is credited on this release! Add a credit?

Other versions Edit

Barely Legal 14 tracks format: 1 x CD
release dates: Sep 22 1997 in Sweden
view details
Tell us about another version?

Trivia Edit

  • We don't know any trivia about this release. Add some?

Websites Edit

SoundUnwound is not responsible for the content of external websites.