The Hives: 'Tick Tick Boom'

After they lent their riffing skills to the Timbaland album and hooked up with the Neptunes, it was tempting to imagine that The Hives were about to undergo a ghetto fabulous makeover. Would the Swedes swap their sharply-tailored suits for oversized Sean John T-shirts? Would Howlin’ Pete Almqvist start to rap? Would Gwen Stefani sing the hook on one of the lesser album tracks? Honest to goodness, our minds ran amok.

But 'Tick Tick Boom', the first single from the Swedes' forthcoming Black and White Album, showcases a slight sonic modification rather than a radical musical reinvention. There are some subtle electro blips during the middle 8, and producer Dennis Herring really goes to town with an exploding bomb sound effect (Tick... Tick... Booooom! Geddit?), but the main ingredients are classic Hives: a frenetic garage-rock beat, buzz-saw riffs and Howlin' Pete Almqvist's inimitable wail. The whole effect is scuzzier than a snack from a Hackney kebab shop, but just as tasty.