In 20 years’ time kids will look back on the 'New Rock Revolution' and think the following things: 1) What a shite name for a music scene 2) What the fuck were people thinking bringing 1980's clothes back in to fashion? 3) The Strokes and The White Stripes deserved the hype but most of the rest of the pack were good singles bands whose albums didn't quite cut the mustard.
The Hives will join The Libertines and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs in the "rest of the pack" category. 'Main Offender' and 'Hate To Say I Told You So' were head and shoulders above everything else on Your New Favourite Band and now 'Walk Idiot Walk' towers over this new record like, well, like a Tyrannosaurus Hive.
If that sounds unkind it isn't meant to. It's just that The Hives have the ability to unearth two and a half minutes of pure pop gold every so often and that can be a curse as well as a gift. The rest of the album is a mixed bag of hyperactive jumping beans: 'Love In Plaster' sounds like a Blondie recording session gatecrashed by a bunch of drunken Swedes, 'Dead Quote Olympics' resembles a Clash b'side and 'Antidote' closes the album with a short, sharp slap across the chops.
It’s all good fun but to be honest you might want to wait for the Greatest Hits CD to come out in five years time.
If Tyrannosaurus Hives was in your family it would be your kid brother: a precocious, sometimes irritating, ball of energy that you can't help but love.
Article by Andy McLean. Copyright held by author.
First published in The Brag, Sydney, 2004.
Tyrannosaurus Hives is available through Polydor.
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