The Black & White Album

by

The Hives

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I rarely give something brand new a 5-star rating, only because I tend to think that an item has to stand the quality test of time before I can comfortably say, "I love it!", but The Hives have quite simply secured my vote with their musical attitude.

I first saw the Hives on one of those sinful MTV shows (movie awards? music awards? is there a difference?) and one of the corporate trend-analysts-cum-vee-jay was talking about the rise of the 'The' bands, and the next feature (after commercial) was to be a classic 'Battle of the Bands,' featuring The Hives and The Vines.

As soon as the commercial break was over, and the so-called Battle began, it became quite clear who were MTV's boys. The Vines played in the center of the ungodly large stage, and The Hives were set up in the furthest corner of stage right. The 5 Hives were crammed together and of course played a tight rendition of "Hate to Say I Told You So" through an equalizer set-up that was probably done by the lowest intern on the food chain, while the 3 Vines strutted about in their MTV mansion and the singer did everything he could to make sure we thought that he didn't want to be there. Of course, the cramped quarters worked wonders for The Hives, for a band that stands close together plays close together, while The Vines were trying too hard to not look like corporate lapdogs.

Immediately, I knew that The Hives had something special going on, a purist energy that was both serious and playful, self-effacing and lacking the quality of giving a hoot about it, while The Vines were going to have a short career that would spiral into pretension and tediousness. The Vines wanted to be a mix of Kim Gordon and The Beatles, while The Hives were there to play, damn the consequences and who might be listening (or not wanting to listen). The kitschy matching suits, the bravado of their image (this album titles each band member His Royal Highness Prince)--all of it shows a desire in The Hives to make fun of themselves in their bravado, so that the real focus is always the music itself.

While previous albums carried themselves on their tight, energetic, basement sound, this album has a little more refinement--but not so much to lose track of the fact that these guys are quite simply the most balls-to-the-wall band in the popular limelight right now. From the head-bobbing energy of the first single, "Tick Tick Boom," to the vocal meltdown into wordless energy in "Return the Favour," The Hives have freneticism in spades. There are, of course, some attempts for new direction with the lounge-meets-Zelda "A Stroll Through Hive Manor Corridors" and the almost disco drive of "T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S." and the Swedish-country gallop of "Giddy Up!" These are interesting tracks, especially since The Hives merely remind us that they think about their sound and are willing to try out something new, as long as it remains fun.

By the time I finished my first listen, I wanted to go back to the beginning and go through it all again. That is rare enough, I find, for a new release, so high marks for this release from a band that is here to remind us that US pop has already become an overspecialized dinosaur, and that we need to start listening to some real Garage rock again.

This is the first Hives album to be longer than about a half hour.

While I'm glad they're putting out more than 30 minutes of new music every 3 or 4 years now, I'm a little distressed that the extra 15 minutes or so are taken up by weird efforts at new sounds.

I'm not saying the Hives have to do the same thing ever record, certainly I enjoy musical progression, but these songs that stretch outside of the traditional Hives paramaters of making really fun, smart, calculated garage rock are NOT good ways to progress.

In fact, every boundary streching track sounds like a crappy novelty song.

"A Stroll Through Hive Manor Corridors" is a very odd instrumental that wouldn't sound out of place on a detective computer game from 1991. Not totally bad in the correct context, but considering its over 2 mintues long and follows the fairly high energy "Hey Little World," it brings the previous 5 tracks energy to a screeching halt.

All I could think of while listening to it was, "This is from the same guys who did 'Barely Legal' 10 years ago?"

The rest of the experimental stuff isn't really any better. The weird disco funk of "T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S." sounds like its supposed to be lame on purpose, which just seems wrong from a band who used to put out albums that were 30 minute blasts of how they were cooler-than-you (and who also follow that track with the similarly raging "Return The Favour").

"Giddy Up!" and "Puppet On A String" also just sound weird and wrong considering WHO they're coming from. They seem like they're coming from a completely different band.

All these musical side steps would probably be fine if the whole ALBUM was like that, but they're instereted around the standard kicking, burning, FUN garage rock. Which only demonstrates just how OUT OF PLACE they seem.

Maybe that was the point though, it is the "BLACK and WHITE album" after all, suggesting that perhaps this was meant to be a polarized effort, with some tracks sounding like total opposites compared to the others.

If that truly is the case, then the Hives have succeeded in their goal, but that doesn't mean it was a good idea.

I like a good 2/3rds of this thing ("Tick Tick Boom" "Try It Again" "Hey Little World" "Won't Be Long" and "Return The Favour" all being shoe-ins for a home-made Hives 'best of' CD), but the experiments randomly insterted inbetween the standard (and still awesome) Hives sound leave the whole experience a little too schizophrenic.

Hives fans will still find their half hour of in-your-face rock, but they'll have to sift through a 45 minute package to get it.