Favorite Albums: 2000-2004
8. The Hives, Tyrannosaurus Hives
Original position on my Stylus ballot: #11
“The main difference is that the last album said ‘I am right’ and this one says ‘You are wrong.’” - Howlin’ Pelle in Blender
And you are wrong! Bunch of drones amusing yourself with little novelties and nostalgias, thinking you’re not part of the problem just because you merely live off a corrupt system and impotently cluck your tongue at its most flamboyant crimes. Robots! What the world clearly needs are a group of Swedes to reinject Nuggets guitar flash into Devo drones and shriek that we’re all idiots! Idiots! Right? Right?
“Abra Cadaver” opens the brief album at blitz pace, with Pelle howlin’ about how they tried to make a office worker out of him as the guitars scrape and spark off each other, doing their best to sound cool while racing to keep up. From there Pelle mostly howls about how you let them make office workers out of you (“Do it good…like a little man should!”) and indulge in nonsense like the “Dead Quote Olympics” as the robotic rhythm section keeps pounding away at your defenses, only releasing the pressure on “Diabolic Scheme,” where they attack you with violins. I know he digs Portishead, but does Paul Krugman like to rock? Because if he does, friends should try to get these guys to play his next birthday party.
