The Hives, Black and White Album

Official release date: November 13

We think: Earlier today we chastised Britney Spears for failing to show up for a recording session with Pharrell Williams, but it turns out she might've had the right idea after all. Pharrell produced two tracks on the Hives' fourth album, and, well, they're terrible. 2004's Tyrannosaurus Hives was an underappreciated garage rock/Krautrock hybrid, but for some reason on almost all of the Black and White Album, they've copped Junior Senior's surf-rock-beach-party shtick to obnoxious and miserable effect. Apart from single "Tick Tick Boom" (which sounds exactly like every other Hives single ever), this record sounds almost nothing like their previous output at all. "Giddy Up" is the stuff nightmares are made of.