The Black and White Album came out in the UK last week which surprised the hell out of me, last I looked they didn’t even release a title for the album. The Hives are my #2 band so this album has really high expectations from me. Their previous 3 1/2 albums are phenomenal and I was worried about this one when I heard that they were working with a bunch of producers. After one listen through I can say that it’s without a doubt over produced. Especially for this band.

The rawness and ferocity seems to have been pulled back, even though there are many fast paced songs, it’s slower over all than their past albums. You can listen to it and definatly know it’s the Hives, it’s just oddly different. That’s only with one real listen through, but those are my initial impressions. Some good tracks on there though, but tracks 6 is fucking horrific and there is a point in one or two other songs where I wonder what they were aiming for.

More thorough impressions later.