10 Greatest Garage Rock Albums Of The 2000s

One of the biggest names in 21st century garage, Swedish five-piece The Hives released three of their five albums in the 2000s, and have everything to do with the genre's success, utilising a frenetic approach to performance that separates them from the crowd.

And this energy is what carries their fourth effort, The Black And White Album (whose name speaks of the band's two-tone visual aesthetic). The explosive opening track "Tick Tick Boom" launched them not quite into the mainstream, but close enough to get higher billing at the big festivals, and set the level for the rest of the record.

While garage purists might cleave to the album's predecessors, which helped lead the revival, the variety and clarity of The Black and White Album mark the point at which the band really ventured out from the safe and somewhat repetitive niche they had carved themselves. Still guitar-led and operating on the edge of hysteria, the album expands its bass lines, extends its songs and offers an overall more polished, cohesive and diverse array of foot-stompers.

In the intervening years, The Hives have receded from view, with nothing but the occasional single for the past eleven years. Still, if their time has been and gone, at least they left us with this masterpiece.