We are revisiting some of our favourite records of 2023

“Step out of the way if you can’t take the pace,” The Hives scream-sing on the closing song of their latest record, The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons. They are all breakneck, guitar-rich songs, many of which clock in at under three minutes. And though this is their first album in ten years, it matches their humorous, hooky output to date, for an album of gritty fun and guitar-ripping goodness.

The band mythology is that Randy Fitzsimmons is the actual writer of the Hives’ songs, and the story goes for this album that they found his gravesite and 12 demos with more signature suits to wear to their face melting shows. With songs like “Rigor Mortis Radio” where they sing “I was a star baby ever since the dawn of man / I got some help for you, let’s call it a masterplan,” they toe the line between absurdity and their tried and true cock-sureness.

“There’s no maturity or anything like that bullshit, because who the fuck wants mature rock ’n’ roll?” lead Pelle Almqvist said about the album. “Rock ’n’ roll can’t grow up, it’s a perpetual teenager and this album feels exactly like that.” With songs that make fun of grown ups’ search for meaning, like album opener “Bogus Operandi,” and songs where they sing, “They say life’s for living / But life as we know it, it’s a stick up,” they thumb their noses at those who would turn life’s pain into a Hallmark card.

It’s angsty, it’s bombastic. It’s thirty minutes of pure adrenaline. There’s even a punky song called simply “The Bomb,” where they sing, “What do you wanna do? – Go off! / What don’t you wanna do? – Not go off!” They are funny, yet they are as sincere as a self-parodying band can get who make it their job to “Crash Into the Weekend.” Fans of the Hives, I think, will be thrilled to get another dose of their visceral rock. They’re coming back strong, even if their muse or the brains behind their organization is finally, fictionally dead.

Order The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons HERE.