| The Hives - Your New Favourite Band |
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 I
once had some hives, nasty itchy things they were, so it’s a good
thing these hives aren't like that at all. I'm sure most of you out
there have heard of The Hives by now, what with appearances on MTV2
and an electrifying performance on the Jools Holland show, NME
continually promoting them and a certain Courtney Love saying they
were even better than her late husband's band! Well, they have a lot
to live up to; will this album make them your new favourite band?
Read on and find out…
The album's opener "Hate To Say I Told You So" is an
infectious melodic punk rock romp of a tune with singalong verses
and a deceptively simple but catchy guitar riff, much like their
other released singles, "Main Offender" and "Die, All
Right!". They're melodic punk rock at its best and it won't
take long before they're stuck in your head. Wait! Hold that thought
for a second... I know what you were thinking of when I mentioned
melodic punk rock, you were thinking Blink182, Sum41 and other such
shite. Wrong! This is punk rock a la The Sex Pistols, The Ramones
and The Dwarves. Though the released singles have a bit more polish
and are more accessible for the casual listener this album is
essentially a proper straight-ahead punk rock record. Once you make
it past the first four songs (three of which were released as
singles) the album changes direction slightly. The songs that follow
are a little less melodic and head down the straight-ahead punk
road. Don’t get me wrong, these songs sit well with the start of
the album but the change is noticeable. After reading the
information on the tracks you find out why, tracks eight to twelve
are earlier material. This album may be a collection of songs from
previous releases but that just means that it is full of good songs,
"Mad Man" and "A.K.A. I-D-I-O-T" stand out in
particular (apart from the singles of course).
So to conclude, what we are looking at here is a very good melodic
punk rock record, while not exactly groundbreaking its a much needed
and refreshing change in these nu-metal times. Will they become your
new favourite band? Well, yes they probably will, this release is
very good and I'm sure you will have it in your CD player for quite
a while. Really the only complaint I could make is that its only 28
minutes long, but hey what else did you expect, it is a punk rock
album after all. With the album sitting cheap in practically every
record store and the videos of their singles on the album too, there
really is no reason not to buy it, unless you don't like punk rock
of course!
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Rating: 7½
out of
10
Reviewed by David Majors
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