"Come On, Come On, Come On, Come On, Come On, Come On, Come On, Come On, Everybody Come On" first track down and it's awesome! So Lex Lives, is it the album that anyone who listens to this band has been waiting for? It's sure looking like that is what might be unfolding here. Frontman Howlin Pelle humorously admitted that the album is very “Hive’s influenced” and the name of the album came from the Roman idea of “enforcing a set of rules and accepting them as standard. The first single "Go Right Ahead" has a certain T-Rex appeal to it and it rocks so really what more could you want.
The Hives are an acquired taste for sure but once you're in on the secret you get all drunk with punchy garage rock fun.The energy of which this band performs it's material is got to be exhausting so they slow things down on "Wait A Minute" which has a chirpy background vocal repeating underneath the melody that will probably drive you crazy or the other around as you keep singing it over and over.
The knowledge of – and nods to – various eras of punk is still evident. "1000 Answers" is early Clash-as-surf-band looking for something, even if not quite sure what. "I Want More" is near-perfect Iggy strum-and-drang demand. It even gets a bit ‘60's Nuggets-style in "Patrolling Days" cop gone wrong or "Midnight Shifter's hot-rod anthem.
The Hives will never mature into something elegant or polished and that's the one thing you can be sure of after listening to this album. They are 100% garage rock and never let you forget where their roots are planted firmly. When you listen to "Without The Money" it's almost as if Mick Jagger came in and showed them what rock n' roll swagger is circa 1966.
The Hives have definitely channeled their psychedelic punk rock influences and let it guide them to absolute perfection and we as music fans get another stellar rock album in 2012. Lex Lives is probably my favorite Hives album to date and one I hope will not burn out quickly in my listening rotation. Now go listen to "Midnight Shifter" and dance like drunk monkey all around the house and repeat as necessary until you just can't shake what your mother gave ya any longer. Thanks for bringing the party to my house Hives I really appreciate it.
0 comments:
Post a Comment