As ever, late to the party, I picked this up in a charity shop for a quid about ten years after release, more out of boredom than any desperate need to hear The Hives, and I don't think I've given it more than a single listen. Let's find out why.
A compilation of tracks from their first two albums and EP, the CD opens with the two hit singles Hate To Say I Told You So and Main Offender, both great tunes, with a thumping riff, setting the listener up for an impressive listen, and the other two tracks from the Veni Vidi Vicious album rock long, even if they don't have the same impact.
The next three, from the aka I-D-I-O-T single are far more of a punk thrash but with only Untutored Youth really sounding anything beyond the ordinary. And I get much the same feel from the rest of the tracks, taken from the Barely Legal album, other than the instrumental which ends the CD (from the Hate To Say CD single).
This is a puzzle. The two hit singles really are bangers, but most of the rest swaps quality for decibels and velocity. It leaves me wondering whether there's more to The Hives than this early stuff suggests, and perhaps I'll explore later stuff.
Their lack of success after those two hit singles suggests otherwise.
3* - Just. There's enough to interest me, and two absolute crackers!
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