Overdriver is the Swedish band The Hellacopters’ ninth studio album. Straight up, I confess that I haven’t listened to them very much. I am somewhat familiar with them, and I kind of like what I’ve heard. Their style leans towards garage rock, I think — and a pretty dirty sound at that. I think The Hellacopters themselves are the reference band in the genre, so it’s kind of hard to compare them to anyone else. Strange really — I can’t very well reference them as sounding like The Hellacopters, can I?
Well, I don’t think it’s so bad really. They don’t really sound like anything else I listen to. The music itself sounds like the band have a lot of fun playing and recording it. There’s a joy about it that is transferred through the speakers. This makes me wanna play some air guitar and really dig into what I hear.
I would say that Overdriver is a bit “lamer” than what I’ve heard before though. And by lamer, I don’t mean lame, of course. It’s rather a feeling of a more polished sound than I’m used to. The production is more aligned, or however you should put it. But still, it’s not too much — it’s still dirty and down to earth. I like this quite a lot, and I’ll spin it again right after it ends.
Maybe the songs themselves are not memorable after just one listen, but the sound is. This is hand in glove for me. Not too pretentious, and it sounds “real.” If I didn’t know better, I’d say they just went into the studio and played whatever they felt like. That is highly improbable of course, but that’s the vibe I get.
