The garage-rock cabaret of Fagersta’s Hives proved an entertaining diversion in 2001, with a couple of excellent singles and some slickly funny, if repetitive, live shows. Now on a major label, their excellently titled third album suggests they may yet stretch beyond being a novelty. There isn’t anything quite as punchy as “Hate To Say I Told You So” here, but the fastidiously rehearsed dementia is better sustained than on Your New Favourite Band, the compilation that broke them in Britain. Odder still, Tyrannosaurus Hives contains hints of artistic depth: the best track, “Diabolic Scheme”, isn’t a wiry ramalam but a clanging ballad featuring Jagger-class histrionics from Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist and a strikingly discordant guitar solo.
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