The Hives - Black And White Album
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Free Music Notes for Black And White Album
Free Music Review: it's time to get into them now.
Hit: 4 Stars
The Black and White Album is sassy, experimental, and confident. It seems to be the most 'approachable' album out of the music that The Hives has created in their career in that it aims to be all-encompassing. The Hives stick to their roots, as seen through songs such as "Tick Tick Boom" (another anthem for the books), "Try It Again," and "Return the Favour." At the same time, the Swedish men have put great effort into expanding their horizons. At first, songs such as "Giddy Up" and "Puppet on a String" can raise some eyebrows of those who were expecting a continuous raw vibe. Give them time, and they just may be the cause of your foot-tapping and strutting antics in your room by the end of the day. If you were not into the Hives before, The Black and White Album seems to be the best way to get into them now. This is an album that will surely stay in your stereo for a long time.Free Music Review: A new precedent.
Hit: 3 Stars
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.
Free Music Review: Black and White is Just All Right
Hit: 3 Stars
The most appealing thing about the Hives has always been the unvarnished enthusiasm that bubbles forth from nearly every song they perform. Regardless of whether it's a studio or live performance, the Hives are clearly enjoying themselves a la the Replacements, a band they often evoke. So it's a little disheartening that the glee on their newest offering, "Black and White," sometimes seems forced. The first studio release since 2004's dazzling, "Tyrannosaurus Hives," the Hives at least deserve kudos for taking chances - although with decidedly mixed results.
The album opens with the terrific new single, "Tick Tock Boom," archetypical Hives. From there, the Swedish quintet moves on to explore a variety of genres that sometimes work but in other instances make you wonder exactly what the heck the band was thinking. Case in point: the strange instrumental, "A Stroll Through Hive Manor Corridors" which would have been perfect on the soundtrack of a bad 1950's horror movie or in a Mitchell Brothers production. But its inclusion here makes you wonder if someone slipped a fast one by the Swedes. And the piano bit on "Puppet on a String" sounds like an updated version of the theme from "The Addams Family."
The band regroups nicely with "Won't Be Long," "Square One Here I Come," and the Undertones-ish "Return the Favor," but then falters badly on the egocentric "T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S" which they thoughtfully spell out after lead singer Pelle Almqvist bellows out, "We Rule the World! This is the World!" But several times throughout the disk, the band seems to have an identity crisis, sounding like the Stranglers on "Well All Right!" evoking the Members on "You Dress Up for Armageddon," and Devo on "Giddy Up!" Note to Pelle et al: it's been done.
"Try it Again," is the album's most ironic tune with lyrics like, "Time to learn a lesson...like Pavlov's dog...if something isn't working, why don't you different instead, instead, instead." Good advice, guys for your next outing.
Free Music Review: Sorry guys, you're just too darn loud
Hit: 3 Stars
My issue with this record is not that T.H.E. H.I.V.E.S. is a horrible song (which it absolutely is), but it's the mixing. I hate just comparing this to Tyrannosaurus Hives (great record), but while listening to that, I never felt the need to turn it down. I kept turning it up and bouncing around like an idiot. Most everything was solid and even in the mix, which gave the rhythm of the drums and guitar a simplistic power. It felt like there was more confidence in the material to mix it that way. Here, everything seems to jump out and hit you in the ears, in order to say, "Hey listen to this!" Whether it's the drums, or the guitars, or the singer, it just hurts. In other parts, everything is just mixed into a bland background mush, making it sound like it's playing in the other room. There's some variety, but for the most part, it sounds like it was mixed for kids who ruined their hearing with ipods.
On the songwriting side, most of the songs range from decent to a little bland with a couple of awful ones peppered in. I did like the new sound they got on "Hive Manor" and "Puppet on a String." Most of the other stuff sounds like bands I would listen to on the Sirius Underground Garage that would just barely keep me from changing the station. The Hives are better than that. Finally, "Fall is Something that Grownups Invented" is my favorite song on the album, but it is not on the main release from what I can tell. Still, the CD's cheap right now with a price of eight dollars, so I still recommend it, just with few caveats.
Free Music Review: Identically dressed Swedes struggle to change more than their clothes.
Hit: 3 Stars
The three years since the last Hives album has been rough on garage rock: The Strokes are AWOL, the Vines flamed out and the White Stripes embraced Led Zeppelin. The brightest new hopes, Black Lips, are best known for (literally) pissing on their fans. When the Hives collaborated on a Timbaland single and recruited fellow hip-hop producer Pharrell, it seemed like a provocative makeover was at hand. But even the title of their new CD is vintage Hives: It's a cheeky attempt to one-up Metallica and the Beatles. Most of the album, like the single "Tick Tick Boom," sticks to formula: glam, pogo-ing blasts that aren't quite as catchy as "Main Offender," their 2002 mini-hit. The second half draws on their Devo worship -- "T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S.," manned by Pharrell, is robo-funk -- but often leaves them sounding unrecognizable or annoying. "Well All Right!" offers an apt metaphor: "swim across the ocean in a concrete suit."