Barely Legal (album)

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Barely Legal
Studio album by The Hives
Released	September 22, 1997
Recorded	1997
Genre	Garage Rock
Length	27:21
Label	Burning Heart Records
Producer(s)	Pelle Gunderfelt
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link
The Hives chronology
Oh Lord! When? How? EP (1996)	Barely Legal (1997)	a.k.a. I.D.I.O.T. EP (1998)

Barely Legal is an album released in September 1997 by a then-unknown Swedish group called The Hives, hailing from Fagersta, Sweden. The album's title was a reference to their age, as all of the five members but one (the lead guitarist, Nicholaus Arson) had very recently turned 18, the same age that it becomes fully legal to star in a pornographic film.

The album itself is regarded by many fans as one of the two extremes of The Hives' recording careers, as it is the rawest of their LPs, as compared to the cleanest of their releases, the third and most recent Tyrannosaurus Hives. This may be a partial explanation of why their second LP, Veni Vidi Vicious received such grand commercial success, as it seemed to be a balance of the two.

The album (and the band) is obviously very influenced by The Adicts, Circle Jerks, and tracks such as "Automatic Schmuck" merit comparisons to The Misfits.

The album's second track, "a.k.a. I-D-I-O-T", spawned a fan-favorite EP-single by the same name. It showed signs of the band making steps toward the sound that would define Veni Vidi Vicious, yet kept the same catchy pop buried under piles of infectiously in your face punk rock, as heard in Barely Legal.

[edit] Track listing

1. "Well, Well, Well" – 1:02
2. "a.k.a. I-D-I-O-T" – 2:12
3. "Here We Go Again" – 2:12
4. "I'm a Wicked One" – 1:45
5. "Automatic Schmuck" – 2:17
6. "King Of Asskissing" – 1:46
7. "Hail Hail Spit n' Drool" – 1:27
8. "Black Jack" – 2:45
9. "What's That Spell?...Go to Hell!" – 1:41
10. "Theme From..." – 2:49
11. "Uptempo Venomous Poison" – 1:13
12. "Oh Lord! When? How?" – 1:42
13. "The Stomp" – 1:54
14. "Closed for the Season" – 2:34

[edit] References

• Burningheart.com (????). Burning Heart Records: Album/Band Info (http). Burningheart.com.