The best Oz import since Kylie's ass? (Highly Evolved - Vines)

Member Name: wicked_witch

Product:	Highly Evolved - Vines
Date:	14/08/02 (392 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: not too rock, not too pop, just right

Disadvantages: too much hype, leave that poor Nicholls boy alone.

Australia’s latest export seems to be getting them more attention than the fact that they are host to some of the worst TV in the world. He’s cute (some website described his face as being “Perfect, even if just for sitting on”- flippin eck!), his fuzzy hair looks like he’s been dragged through a bush backwards and he makes Jarvis Cocker look like Mike Tyson. “He” is Craig Nicholls of the Vines, the latest skinny, greasy-haired indie boy to become NME’s rock God (no kidding, they did a massive article about them, including the very amusing “Anatomy of a rock god” page). Are they just the Australian Strokes? You might well ask.

The answer would be no.

Are they as good as Nirvana? Don’t be stupid. The Beatles? As if. Anyone saying this needs a good talking to and kick in the pants. But, nevertheless, the Vines are pretty good. This debut will not save rock and roll. It’s probably not even going to do really well in the charts. But it’s still pretty damn good.

While at the outset the comparisons are there (big hair, retro threads, short, addictive and catchy tunes), looking closer, there the similarities end. If the Strokes are the Stooges meets Television with vocals by Lou Reed, then the Vines are Nirvana meets the Beatles with a screaming loony (or so it would appear) as a frontman. Plus, to be fair, the Strokes are prettier, and far more styled and polished than the Vines. They also know how to present themselves onstage, on screen, in interviews. And therefore will probably do much better than the Vines. A Strokes performance would rely on (besides the music) audience hype, as Julian and Co. are notoriously reserved onstage. A Vines performance would include Craig kung-fu kicking his bandmates, flinging himself into drum kits, falling (and not deliberately) off the stage and deliberately bursting his lip on the mic. And that’s just the gig I witnessed. I
t includes screaming power, heartfelt pain and the angst of a slightly odd young man. Does that sound familiar? Oh, and usually a lot of spitting and pulling out chunks (of his own) hair. I had the pleasure of seeing the Vines play, and Craig had the entire crowd hypnotised with his manic depressive stoner personality. It was as if people were expecting him to take out a razor blade onstage and start cutting himself with it.

On to the album itself, which was released on the 8th of July with Heavenly recordings, and is priced from £9.99-£12.99 (if you shop in mainstream high street music stores). There are twelve tracks on here, which can be divided into two types- the indie-pop meets neo-punk tracks (the rather fantastic “Highly Evolved”) and the psychedelic stoner tracks. The lyrics tend to be on the simplistic, but by no means stupid, side. There’s nothing ground breaking here, except some adorable pop melodies and an even more adorable front man who everyone believes is going to kill himself in the near future. Err…charming.

There are however, outstanding tracks on here. The singles “Highly Evolved”, “Get Free” and the current “Outtathaway” really do kick butt, while “1969” is another top tune, and “Mary Jane” is simply beautiful. The only track approaching bad is “Factory” which is just annoying and too Beatlesy for words- and not in a complementary way. I just hope the Vines don’t do an Oasis and turn into a crappy Beatles tribute band. Or a crappy Nirvana tribute band for that matter. So, without further ado, here are my thoughts on Highly Evolved.

1.“Highly Evolved” From the very start of this song, which will probably be the Vines song you’ve heard if you’ve heard any, the riff sounds distinctly Nirvana-esque in catchy Teen Spirit mode. The vocal is chock-full of droning attitude, and does sound a little w
annabe Cobain-esque. The guitar riff is chugging and heavy, but not so heavy as to lose its pop sensibilities. Its like Nirvana for pop kids. Or indie kids even. Every word of this song is made for singing along to, and it’s sure to be a future gig favourite, purely for its nice, bouncy, and fun simplicity. Lyrically it’s a bit daft and scatty (something about brothers working on markets being metaphorical targets for arrows) but it just sounds like good rock fun with a nice bit of screaming thrown in. The track lasts exactly one minute and thirty-four seconds; the end is a bit of a shock as you kinda expect it to keep going. It makes a suitable impact and is a well-chosen opener and single.

2. “Autumn Shade” A sweet acoustic track. Seeing them live came as a shock to me, as their slow acoustic stuff far outnumbered the likes of “Get Free” and “Outtathaway”. In many ways this album came as a bit of a surprise to me, as I was expecting 12 songs along the lines of “Get Free” and “Highly Evolved” but instead most of the songs are more along the lines of this. It’s an alternately depressed and hopeful track, with a wailing electric guitar line thrown in for good measure. The backing vocals are both sweet and eerie and give the track a dreamy, wandering, almost stoned feel to it (funny that, considering the song-writer apparently spends most of his life stoned).

3. “Outtathaway” My favourite track on the album, this is a brilliant pop-punk gem with a sprinkling of garage rock and just a touch of psychedelica, a sparkling, bouncy Nirvana-fest. This is the fourth single to be lifted from the album and its less heavy than “Get Free” and despite the greatness of that track; this one kicks its ass. Starts with a squall of feedback that gives way to a razor sharp drum line, an even sharper squeaky clean guitar line and very infectious call and answer vocals.
The short verses give way to ever shorter two-line choruses. This one is a total “I hate the world and everyone in it” track. The clean guitar line is a perfect contrast to the gravel-throated vocals and crap drum kit syndrome (you know, the garage rock thing where the drum kit sounds really dirty but in reality costs about a million quid). I feel at points this is an over-rated album and there are songs on this which just don’t live up to the hype. This isn’t one of them.

4. “Sunshinin” Another top track, sets the course for a great album (unfortunately it doesn’t really live up to it). If this isn’t the next single I’ll eat my Idlewild beanie. It’s a catchy, summery track that is just made for singing along to in a soft top while driving down a motorway (I’ve seen too many bad movies). It’s tightly put together while sounding ramshackle. Quite an achievement. This one makes great use of different guitar effects, and sounds gritty and buzzing. It doesn’t really have any catchy hooks to it, but the whole thing in general is something that will get stuck in your head. The droning lyrics sound very Australian at points, and American in others. Nicholl’s voice sounds pretty damn hot in this one to be honest, despite his fondness for screaming in a nineties grunge band fashion.

5. “Homesick” As you might guess from the title, this one is a melancholic slowie played on acoustic guitar with absolutely gorgeous canonised vocals. The boy knows how to sing when he wants to that’s for sure. The guitar line echoes the tender vocals. This is one of the albums better slow tracks. The harmonising of vocals on the lines “it really doesn’t matter, couldn’t change it if I tried” sounds distinctly Beatles-style; while the well-fitting electric guitar solo is a tad Nirvana-esque, but not embarrassingly so as some of this album can tend to be.
It also sounds a little like something Coldplay might have come out with when they were starting out. I am absolutely in love with the vocalisation on this track, its softly Ozzie accented and sweet without being cloying at all. Lovely track. It’s the perfect adolescent “my boy/girlfriend just dumped me” song. My second fave on the album, this is another that could stand well as a single, although undoubtedly it wouldn’t do as critically well as the likes of “Get Free”.

6. “Get Free”. The underlying message in this song seems to be “AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHH”. Its one of THOSE songs. You get them on every good rock album. You jump around your room to it, punch pillows and teddy bears, and if you’re like me, walls. Its impossible for your emotion not to be stirred by a song like this. Its alternately happy and hateful, vicious and vitriolic and absolutely, 100% insane. An absolutely stomping rock track of a screaming fest. It’s dirty, gritty, the riffs are extremely grungy and the chorus is made for screaming at the top of your lungs at rock gigs. Nicholls’ considerable vocal talent is totally absent here; he just screams, squeals and bellows while battering the hell out of a poor innocent guitar (and probably his face too) producing a hammering riff. It finishes with an agonised scream and grinds to a sudden halt, leaving you confused as to what the hell just happened. WHAT a song.

7. “Country Yard” a contrast to the last one, that’s for sure. This is another slow song, with a dirgey guitar line, a stoned, sedated and moody vocal line with an almost falsetto backing vocal. The chorus on this one seems to consist of a very long “ah” which is really quite nice to listen to and sing along to. This is quite a weird song, with a twanging guitar line, accented drumbeat and the very high-pitched vocal. Its delirious and dreamy, suspiciously
stoned sounding, and while the lyrics are good, but again, nothing special, the beauty of this song is just its pretty sound. It’s such a lovely song to lay back and listen to. All suggestions of rolling a joint and sticking this album on will be resisted.

8. “Factory” It’s a total Beatles tribute track. And to be honest, it’s not much of a compliment. It’s bouncy, catchy, and irritating. The tune is simple. Now, I’m a big fan of simple, but this takes it waaaaaaaaaaaay too far. It revels in its own cheesey suckiness. A song this cheesy belongs on a Hear’say album, not on the album of a band trying to be taken anything approaching seriously. However it is one of the few efforts on the album where Nicholls doesn’t sound tortured and confused. But it’s really a kiddie track. Definitely the albums low point, and ironically, its first single.

9. “In the Jungle” The riff on the verses of this sounds very reminiscent of a Beatles tracks, in fact it sounds a good bit like Day Tripper. It’s a repeated, laid-back riff with a slightly urgent and rocking edge to it. The lyrics are drawn out and droning, and it’s a very singable, decent song, and yet another potential single. Nicholls quickly moves on to screaming over a guitar solo though, as you might expect from the little Oz fella. Once again, he uses a falsetto backing vocal at certain points, and at other times more low pitched harmonisation of the vocals. A very sharp, neat, well thought out track that manages to not sound overproduced.

10. “Mary Jane” Aww. This is a lovely, Verve-esque song. It’s alternately wandering and claustrophobic, with a crooning but gravely vocal and a very pretty alternating electric and acoustic guitar track. The chorus is absolutely beautiful, with a repetitive “Mary Jane” and a beautiful soaring electric guitar in the background, which is very clean
and love song sounding, but not overly clichéd. In other words, just clichéd enough. It sounds hopeful in a sweet adolescent way, and every part of the music, from the wandering drums to the sugar sweet guitar riff to the babyish vocals complement each other perfectly. Craig Nicholls might not be the most original songwriter on the block, but he certainly has mastered the art form of beautiful sounding music. It’s like chocolate for the ears.

11.“Aint no Room” A very nu-American-pop-punk sounding kinda track, with garagey, low-pitched vocals and chugging riffs, and a cymbal-based drum line. This song is heavy yet pop-friendly, with alternating vocals, it frequently slows to a near stop, and then charges off again with that viciously thundering guitar line. The emphasis on this song is definitely more on music than vocal, and its yet another potential single. It never once loses its dogged but bouncy rhythm.

12. “1969” A suitable finish, a medium-to-slow paced but very heavy song. A psychedelic stoner fest, with lazy vocals, and laid-back and twanging guitar and drifting drum track. This is another track with a ‘pretty’ feel to it. Its kinda spoiled by a few screaming moments and a instrumental bit that really does nothing for it, but it quickly picks up with a hurried guitar line and some squalling feedback, which is what the song mock-finishes again, then rises from its own ashes with a hard guitar line and more instrumentals, although with dreamy backing vocals, which adds a pretty damn good touch. The appropriate vocal here is “I’m a seed of a man”.

Yes you are, and hopefully the seed of a good band too! So there you have it. It doesn’t stand up to the hype, the Vines are no more the saviours of rock than the Strokes were, but standing on its own two feet this album is pretty damn good. So if you don’t expect the new Nirvana, just a nice, upbeat, poppy band who wil
l hopefully do really well, then you won’t be disappointed.

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