The Hives | Walk Idiot Walk
a jade jett review

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Campier than Abba, crazier than that Swedish chef from The Muppets and tastier than lingonberry sauce on a meatball, The Hives newest release is easily becoming one of the most rabidly awaited items since fighting with your roommate over the newest Ikea catalogue. After more than two years off the musical grid, the fab five are back on the radar with a vengeance in all their skinny-tied glory with their third LP, Tyrannosaurus Hives.

Blowing up huge in 2001 the band took to the helm of the Viking ship that brought Swede rock to the forefront with the release of Veni, Vidi, Vicious. Touted as one of the best live bands on the planet with gushing praise from the likes of Noel Gallagher and Courtney Love, The Hives landed a compilation/greatest hits deal on Al McGee's cooler than shit Poptones label before moving up to the big boys at Universal.

The rabidly awaited first single, "Walk Idiot Walk" is a brisk, heart-racing stroll that matches the pace and tone of “Hate To Say I Told You So,” getting stuck in some darkened recess of your primitive oblongata. Kicking off with a guttural floor tom thump, the primitive jungle pace gets matched up alongside a hot churning bass line before leading into crisp, high Keef-esque guitar licks. This is straightahead rock n' roll blending sneering punk attitude with Sixties tambourines, Seventies-style staggered quarter notes and a wash of psychedelic dissonance. Howlin' Pelle Almqvist reincarnates a balls-out, chicken-strutting Mick in all his cock-of-the-walk glory, along with shades of Daltrey, Iggy and an acid-dipped Marc Bolan.

This album contains a boatload of crank-to-eleven, foot-tapping summer tunes -- a few of which are bound to end up in some trendy mid-sized luxury automobile commercials real soon -- but you can hardly cry sell-out in today's hard and fast modern times, can you? All in all, their first single -- "Walk Idiot Walk" -- confirms that Tyrannosaurus Hives is a stroll long past due.