Buzzes and bumbles abound

The Hives

“Tyrannosaurus Hives” (Interscope)

***

One reason this Swedish quintet was such a refreshing arrival here two years ago was that it came with a secret weapon: a smile.

From its snappy wardrobe and self-congratulatory stage patter to its hyperactive mix of punk and garage rock, the Hives seemed not only smart but also blessed with a limitless imagination.

“Yes, America, you love us,” lead singer Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist told the opening-night audience that spring at the Roxy. “We’ve come to take over your country and change everything. History starts today.”

The music was equally disarming. “Do what I wanna ‘cause I can,” Almqvist sang in “Hate to Say I Told You So,” a radio hit that was typical of the band’s crisp tales of youthful exuberance and impatience.

The Hives’ first album since moving to a major label shifts the musical shades (the influences are more aligned with ‘70s new wave in places), but the pace is just as frantic.

“Abra Cadaver,” the opening track, is a sonic tornado, built around the Hives’ signature theme of resisting conformity and authority. “Tried to stick an office worker inside of me / But I kept breaking free,” Almqvist declares. It’s less than two minutes long but so full of energy and promise that it defies you not to be enthralled.

“Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones” keeps things moving at a breakneck pace, but it’s “Walk Idiot Walk” that should keep alt-rock radio airways humming this summer. A deliriously upbeat attack on anyone who tries to stifle individuality, the track salutes the mocking, mechanical rhythms of Devo and the swagger and force of the Who. At this point in the album, we’re talking four stars.

But things start slipping. While the energy never fails, the themes and melodies feel commonplace at times. Instead of putting a Hives stamp on the influences as they did in earlier albums, the band seems to be leaning on models, including the Clash, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and even the Strokes.

For all its delights, the album, only 30 minutes long, doesn’t really leave you wanting more, the way a great album should. Howlin’ Pelle had better have some funny lines when the Hives play the Henry Fonda Theatre on Aug. 2 and 3.

-- Robert Hilburn

*

Still more music

in the key of G

Lloyd Banks

“The Hunger for More”

(G Unit / Interscope)

** 1/2

The title says it all: more gorgeously produced beats, more well-groomed lyrical flow, and more of the same money-in-the-bank gangsta crud about rides, gats, ice and hos slicked up in a new wrapper guaranteed to sell.

One-third of the infamous G-Unit, Banks has a delivery more low-toned and deceptively mellow than his partners 50 Cent and Tony Yayo, but the subject is the same: getting and keeping. The first single, “On Fire,” is about blowing up -- which it has, taking the album straight to No. 1 with sales of over 400,000 in its first week.

Though not one of the songs on the album stands out in terms of head-popping new production -- there’s not a hit that will transcend the hip-hop hard-core -- each cut is utterly bulletproof, and Banks’ lyrics provide a few new twists.

On “Warrior,” for instance, he croons, “If that’s your man, warn ‘em / I got enough bullets to hit every NBA patch on ‘em.”

“Die One Day” contains a sweet guitar sample and high-funk vocal that recalls the best of Funkadelic, and there are shining moments with Eminem on “Warrior Part 2” and with Snoop Dogg on “I Get High.”

This is maintenance music for Gs looking for the newest that isn’t going to upset their delicate and dangerous palates.

Dean Kuipers

*

Something less than advertised

Joe Nichols

“Revelation” (Universal South)

** 1/2

Nichols’ sophomore album is solidly stronger than his promising debut, “A Man With a Memory,” although it’s still not the musical revelation fans might have hoped it would be.

Working in the country tradition, Nichols uses a voice that’s one big part clenched, throaty Merle Haggard and the other folksy, easygoing Alan Jackson, which makes it more of a challenge for him to establish an identity of his own. His song selection runs more hot than cold here, notably Harley Allen’s self-affirming “If Nobody Believed in You,” Bobby Braddock’s spiritual title track (for which Nichols gives a nod to Waylon Jennings’ 1972 version) and the closing number, Iris DeMent’s powerful “No Time to Cry.”

He balances such heavier moments with a chipper song he helped write, “What’s a Guy Gotta Do,” and the bouncy western swing tune “Don’t Ruin It for the Rest of Us.” Only occasionally does he let nostalgic sentimentalism creep into the mix (“The Shade,” “I Wish That Wasn’t All”), muting the impact of the more honestly felt material.

-- Randy Lewis

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.