|
(Oct 7, 2004)
Rating - **
The Hives page
|
I began focusing my attention on this CD after hearing The Hives' hit single "Walk Idiot Walk", purported to have obvious political overtones. Visits to a handful of underground websites confirmed my suspicions. I wanted to give The Hives a fair shake though, because I didn't want to quibble over politics and in so doing, let good music slip between the cracks. My concerns were unfounded.
|
|
|
|
Tyrannosaurus Hives is a collection of songs that average between 2 and 2 1/2 minutes long. This predilection for short songs is apparently to keep you from noticing that none of the songs is particularly good. Just when you are starting to realize that a song is irritating, it ends and a new, equally irritating one starts up. There are some short-song groups that don't fit this mold. For example, The Strokes' debut album followed the short-and-sweet formula, but worked in a way that Tyrannosaurus Hives doesn't. The Hives' songs are all pinched off from the same cookie-cutter, with the exception of the aforementioned "Walk Idiot Walk", which they evidently gave some thought to, and "B for Brutus", which is a shameless rip-off of the Pretenders' "Mystery Achievement."
|
"Walk Idiot Walk" is a good song, but the mean-spiritedness of the message detracts from its overall effectiveness. If the rest of the CD had been anything more than tedious and unoriginal mediocrity stacked 11 tracks high, reviewing it would have presented more of an ethical problem for me. If politics is being used to sell music, then it's fair game for that music to be reviewed in a political context. The fact is that some pack of balding, beer-bellied third-raters from Sweden are getting rich by taking potshots at the U.S. President, and that is uncool, whether the president in question be Bush, Clinton, or Millard Fillmore. The Hives suck for the most part, so it turned out to be a non-issue.
|
