The Hives - Lex Hives

The Hives are back and that message should be writ large on the side of skyscrapers, trailed behind aeroplanes, and if there's enough promotional cash left then beamed onto the side of the moon so that everyone is aware that the buzz in the air has a source.

Lex Hives sounds like a debut, an album that's full of the joyous excitement of making a noise for the sake of it.

In fact it has the feel of a recording that was rattled out over the course of a weekend in a shiny studio that the janitor cut keys for and passed onto the kids from the wrong side of the tracks for a couple of bucks.

That this wasn't the case, and instead it was recorded in a slew of studios with different producers over a period of time is to its credit.

It's a blast of fresh air that blows what is currently being hawked as edgy by the mainstream into the gutter like the yesterdays news that it is.

Starting with some hand claps, the new wave sound of a vocoder and a scream it grabs you, and the party has started.

Everyone is invited so grab a bottle and let their hair down.

This album aint letting up until the sun comes up and the milkman is stepping over the casualties to place his delivery on the doorstep.

They could have called this 'The Hives Save the World' or 'The Hives motherfuckin latest awesome album' and I would have shrugged and went along with it.

By the time they roll into 'Without the money' they're revisiting some Screaming Jay Hawkins and the track acts as the velvet glove that's wrapped around the iron fist of 'These spectacles reveals the nostalgics' that follows it.

There's the caress and then the slap of the double whammy right there.

On 'I want more' there giving Joan Jett a kick up the arse by adding some attitude stolen from Grandmaster Flash while keeping the amps turned up to ten.

Christ it just gets better as it goes on.

Bring on the live gigs. They're going to be killer.