9. hives, "hate to say i told you so"
after the 1,000th listen, one starts to think that these guys are too intelligent to be making this music. not that higher aims are more admirable necessarily, but that it's really too studied to work as well as it should. sure, iggy's bright but in a brilliant beast kinda way, not in the snarky, wink-wink howlin' pelle fashion. it is difficult to interface with both this song and this band unless you try to obviate the need to by shouting along and, in which case, are the words you're shouting registering? and doesn't it seem a bit wrong? i'm left with the impression that behind the histrionics they're rather hollow, intentionally so, like a bunch of stuffed matching suits. but, oh, that riff. best walking song of the year.