Come to think of it, has anyone ever seen Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist and Christopher Lloyd in the same room?
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[5.33]
Brad Shoup: I’ve never figured out what the Hives are for. Are they a willing repository for the rock-star love we deny other careerists? Are they a burlesque troupe? Or are they Schoolhouse Rock for the Rolling Stone crowd? The addition goes “Don’t Bring Me Down” (Lynne-sanctioned!) + Gary Glitter’s saxes + “Hash Pipe”. Worse trinities could be assembled, I suppose.
[6]
Alfred Soto: Edging closer to their glam roots means plastic perfection for these Swedish wannabes. Do you wanna touch’em? YEAH. YEAH.
[6]
Anthony Easton: The Hives are a little too plasticy to be properly rock and roll filthy, and too filthy to be properly pop plastic–this tension is occasionally interesting, and they have the potential to understand a tapeworm burrowing chorus, but often there is either too much or too little going on, and the listener ends up being frustrating. This is one of the latter cases.
[4]
Iain Mew: The brass adds an extra half a dimension, but they’re still flatly direct. The “Get it On” swagger and “Hash Pipe”/”What You Waiting For?” melodic zig-zag both fail to stick, and they manage to make plans to “drink, fuck and fight all night” sound kind of boring.
[3]
Jonathan Bogart: Yup, there’s the Stones bit. Yup, there’s the Kinks bit. Yup, there’s the Who bit. Yup, there’s the Stooges bit. Yup, there’s the MC5 bit. Yup, there’s the Pistols bit. Oh, huh. I guess they decided to leave out the Hives bit this time.
[5]
Edward Okulicz: I think anyone’s score for this should equal whatever score they give “Don’t Bring Me Down” by ELO, minus about five points. Sounds about right to me.
[8]