This modern world, eh, ain’t it just great? The key to its success is that everyone knows things were more or less good enough way back when, they just took far too long. So now we can be deliriously happy with our remote controls, browsing Ikea’s shelves online from our Ikea armchairs, and blink-of-an-eye information-superhighway delivered mp-free downloads of derivative recycled musics. Nothing’s really changed, it’s all just quicker, fitter, happier, more convenient. And now, the latest innovation: the Euro flat-pack retro rock n roll band! Round of applause! So run your eyes over The Blue Van, rolled out following successful prototype The Hives, courtesy of the finest Swedish craftsmanship, and the less successful follow-up model, Caesars. Lessons have been learnt.
So first out of the box is a ready-primed British TV commercial soundtrack, a feature retained from the failed Caesars’ version of the product in order to bag a guaranteed surge of interest, this time via a cheeky little Peugeot clip. Next up there’s a website stenciled fittingly with retro lettering and grooooovy text, a brief popular history from their native land (this time with a minor geographical shift over to Denmark), a box of neatly pressed costumes sourced from regulation 60s designs, credibly weathered instruments and a repertoire consisting of riffs used at least once already, shoehorned together and styled with enthusiastic panache and efficiency. And an album title borrowed from a Rizla campaign and already integrated into youth culture. Sorted.
This album would really be far more effective though did it not constantly seem like a parody. It pulls decent punches you see, just they’re nothing you can’t get up from afterwards. ‘Product of DK’ is the tune you know from the telly and is like Hendrix joining The Monkees. ‘I Remember The Days’ remembers The Who, ‘I Want You’ and ‘The Blueveture’ remember The Kinks, ‘The Remains Of Sir Maison’ remembers The Stones. ‘Word From The Bird’, ‘Revelation Of Love’ and ‘What The Young People Want’ are all Hives album tracks in everything but name. And they’re all kind of faultless. But they’re also 2D. You can’t climb inside them. Which is alright if all you want is to brighten the place up with some faux pop-art.