The Hives: Your New Favourite Band

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * * )

From the "something they prepared earlier" department: Sweden's standard bearers in the great garage rock uprising of 2002 have just had their highly entertaining Veni Vidi Vicious of two years ago released locally. This English label reworking takes four of the more wiry rabble-rousers from that LP and adds eight (mostly) frenetic tracks from earlier album Barely Legal and various singles.

That makes for a collection that's all over in less than 30 minutes but still shows just why Britain is going ape for the sharply dressed Scandinavian mod-punks. Cue any of the first four Vicious songs or firecracker tracks like Mad Man, A. K. A. Idiot, and the Ramones-blast Hail Hail Spit n'Drool and it's not hard to see why so many Up Over think it's a case of today Fagersta, tomorrow the world.

Label: Shock