So why is The Hives’ Tyrannosaurus Hives on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
The Hives might be the catchiest garage punk band of all time, and Tyrannosaurus Hives is their finest hour to date.
Tyrannosaurus Hives landed at the tail end of the garage rock revival (White Stripes, Vines, and so on) and proved The Hives could deliver a manic garage punk classic. Released in 2004, it hit me right as I was starting to wonder if new releases of high-energy punk were something I’d aged out of.
Man, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Where the White Stripes stripped things down to raw blues minimalism and the Vines leaned on scrappy immediacy, The Hives doubled down on speed, swagger, and pure hookiness.
Other bands out of the New York scene from that era like The Strokes and Interpol never fully resonated with me. And perhaps one reason why The Hives turn me on to this day is because they made punk sound fun again, a spirit also carried by the great Parquet Courts.
Tyrannosaurus Hives is The Hives at their leanest, sharpest, and most deliriously fun.
To quote the Swedish fellas from The Black and White Album (#165 of best 1,000 albums ever): “Tick tick boom.”
Number 49 of the best 1,000 albums ever: let’s do this.
A rock solid-meets-rocket ride just a hair under half an hour blasts off with “Abra Cadaver,” 93 seconds as clever in concept and execution as its playful/morbid title.
Most importantly, it’s soaring blissful garage punk rock that is precisely my speed when I’m looking for energetic music to get me moving in mind, body, or spirit.
Quick note here that frontman Pelle Almqvist’s antics are akin to a punk rock era James Brown preacher.
“See Through Head” is my favorite Hives song of all time: it’s staccato punk rock mapped against the delightful uh-uh-uh-ohs! with a maxed-out tempo that never fails to delight and blow me away.
“No Pun Intended” may be the single most energy-per-second-of-music song of all time.
This is an equation I’m actively working on, people: I’ll get back to you on this when I’ve published in Scientific American: Punk Rock Edition.
And yet “Diabolic Scheme” is able to slow things down considerably while losing nothing in energy and power.
But it’s the relentless punk rock blast of tracks like “Missing Link” and “Dead Quote Olympics” that will keep you coming back to Tyrannosaurus Hives.
“Antidote” closes out the album with a pure garage-punk groove – melodic, snotty, and an all-around delight.
Some stats & info about The Hives – Tyrannosaurus Hives
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Rock Music, Punk Rock, Garage Punk, Garage Punk Revival, Retro Rock, Swedish Bands
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4.5 out of 5 stars
- When was Tyrannosaurus Hives released? 2004
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #49 out of 1,000
The Hives’ Tyrannosaurus Hives on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from The Hives’ Tyrannosaurus Hives that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
You got a head – a see-through head.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.