Top 1 album of 2023.

It’s been long overdue, but here it is. Short, and sweet. My favourite album from last year, 2023, that is.

It came out of nowhere, from a long hiatus of music releases from the band. I wasn’t sure that they would ever release new music, since 11 years passed from their latest studio release, before the release of this album.

Alright, that’s enough beating around the bush. My favourite album of 2023 is The Death Of Randy Fitzsimmons by The Hives. As written above, the album was released 11 years after Lex Hives was released.

The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons is a classic, and a perfect The Hives album. I want to preface this with saying that i’ve loved The Hives since i was a child, and i’ve had the great fortune of seeing them play live twice. Once in 2014, and another time in 2022. I still refer to the 2014 Hives-gig as the best concert i’ve been to – and i’ve been to atleast over a hundred shows by now.

So, when i saw that The Hives was releasing new music, i was excited, but also a bit scared, since it’s been so long since they released new studio music. Time passed, the album was released and i saw that the swedish music magazine Gaffa gave the new The Hives album a perfect score, 6/6, and that surprised me, and reinforced my scare of the new album – as me and Gaffa does not very often see eye to eye on new releases.

A bit worried, i decided to give the new album, The Death of Randy Fitzsimmons a chance. And i was blown away. It was a perfect The Hives album. I listened to it like four times, back to back, to try and find something wrong. But i couldn’t find it.

The album is 12 song long and spans 31 minutes and 32 seconds. And it contains all the elements that makes a Hives album, a Hives album. From punk that feels like shoving your face into a brick wall, to the gentler parts, that build up to the crescendo of the tracks.

Seeing people posting their top 10 album of the year-lists, and music magazine making their lists, made me realize that i do listen to a lot of music – but i rarely listen to new releases. It’s something that i need to improve, and that is something i am going to try and do this year.

Until next time, take care.
SLQT.