The Hives Forever Forever The Hives

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Don’t be fooled by the brief burst of Beethoven’s Fifth that caps the introductory track on The Hives’ seventh album—Sweden’s most swaggering garage rockers have not entered their symphonic prog phase. It’s just a mischievous misdirection that thrusts us slam-bang into “Enough Is Enough,” whose buzzsaw guitars and spine-cracking backbeat provide intentionally unsubtle echoes of The Hives’ 2000 signature, “Hate to Say I Told You So” (while proving that even in his late forties, lead singer Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist isn’t about to retire his nickname). Cramming 13 tracks into 33 minutes, <i>The Hives Forever Forever The Hives</i> retains the band’s strict adherence to punk’s loud/fast parameters, even as they reformulate their Molotov-rocktail recipe with liberal doses of synth-spiked indie (“Legalize Living”), Clash-of-’77 valor (“Paint a Picture”), and high-voltage AC/DC riffage (“Bad Call”). As a Y2K-era sensation that’s endured past the quarter-century mark, The Hives have more than earned the right to write their own self-celebratory theme song, and with the needling, New Wavey title track, they deliver the sort of shout-it-out chorus that their crowds will still be chanting long after the house lights go up.

via Apple Music

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