The Hives: 'The Black And White Album'

Howlin' Pelle Almqvist. Chris Dangerous. Dr. Matt Destruction. Vigelante Carlstroem. Nicholaus Arson. It's pretty hard for The Hives to shed their image as a cartoon garage rock outfit, who are more novelty than seminal, more comedy project than rock heroes, when even their names sound like rejected ideas for the Beano. Yet judging from the matching suits, razor-sharp haircuts and proclamations that they were the 'greatest band ever', you wouldn't imagine they ever cared much for plaudits from the critics or about securing a note in the handbook of rock history. The swish-looking Swedes always looked happiest having fun on some festival stage with the audience in the palm of their hands as they dealt out hammer blows of bubblegum garage rock. Not for them the grand political statements or cringing emotional gesturing of a Coldplay or U2. Bono could stick his sunglasses into the business of every politician, pope or passing pedestrian, and The Hives didn't care because they were having a P-A-R-T-Y.

Yet something's changed on The Black And White Album. Fret not, there are no God-awful save the dolphins messages, or pleas for George Bush to pull the troops out and drop the debt. Nor have they ditched their matching black and white kits - in fact they've just been upgraded to include nifty-looking blazers that are straight out of a Just William novel. No, The Hives' most dramatic change has come with their tunes and the fact that they now sound like a band made up of three dimensions. There's more bulk to their riffs, bigger bounce on their bass and rather than 14 fuzzy guitar anthems, they've produced a pick 'n' mix bag of hits, with sugar sweet pop hooks and grimy guitar sniping to entertain all quarters. In true Spinal Tap fashion, they've twisted the amps up to 11 and blown away the competition. First single 'Tick, Tick, Boom' gave us a clue, with its machine gun fire riffage and clattering drums. Hot on its heels is the echoing boom of 'Try It Again', with a pack of children screaming on backing vocals, a heavy dose of rhythmic handclaps and express train cymbal crashes.

Meanwhile 'You've Got It All...Wrong' is the best thing they've ever produced by some considerable distance. It sprints along like Linford Christie chasing a bus, with Pele's screams and yelps boosted by the sort of drums you'd expect Metallica may dismiss for being a bit noisy. Even better are the fuzzed synth sound effects during the brief breakdowns, which are so ace they should instantly be packed off to Kylie and placed on her new album. The fact the band worked with hip-hop's hottest property Pharrell Williams can probably partly explain why the album's such a leap on from 2004's Tyrannosaurus Hives. 'T.H.E H.I.V.E.S' and 'Well Alright' are the direct results of their work with the N*E*R*D knob-twiddler-come-rapper. He's got the band ripping out tunes with sniper-shot precision sounding sleeker than a ballgown on Beyoncé, and he's gifted them several new strings to their previously flimsy-looking bow. 'T.H.E H.I.V.E.S' in particular sees the band mix their usual bravado ("This is our world / We rule the world") on top of a funky, slap bass, and a ton of hip-hop licks that should have made it on to Kanye's last album. It sounds awful in theory. On record it's more infectious than the common cold and will leave you grinning from ear-to-ear.

Of course the album's got a few lulls. 'Return The Favour' and 'Square One Here I Come' are bog-standard tunes that could have come from any of their early records, while the experiments on the glitchy 'Giddy Up' and horse-shoe clop-clop of 'Puppet On A String' should have been left in the studio. However, we can forgive The Hives the occasional misdemeanor and self-indulgent faux-pax because they do it all with such unbridled enthusiasm and the sort of glee that we thought was held under copyright laws by High School Musical. The Black And White Album should be remembered as the best of the band's career and also as a great one in its own right.