The Vines - 'Highly Evolved' (Heavenly)
4/5
By: Toby L
With The Vines already eager to work on their second album, despite the fact that 'Highly Evolved' hasn't even reached music-stores yet, you could be worried that the motive behind this was to ensure them the chance to work on a far superior recording, the first one maybe not as strong as hopes are for it to be... An unlikely story. For, with the Aussie act's dynamic debut-LP, they have created one of 2002's quintessential releases, rich in the songwriting skills and varying range which has warranted them to be tagged as this year's potential biggest success-story.
Before we analyse what's specifically on-offer, let's just go over why The Vines have generated such a buzz in the first place. Well, aside from the continually fluent bass of Patrick Matthews and consistent backing from acoustic-guitarist Ryan Griffiths and Hamish Rosser on drums (although it is the now-departed member David Olliffe who contributes the latter to this record), they also possess Craig Nicholls: a boyishly-innocent and enigmatic singer/guitarist/lyricist whose talents in crafting melodies and stories in a musical-composition are bafflingly obscure - though refreshing.
As displayed rather exquisitely by producer Rob Schnapf (of Foo Fighters and Beck fame) here, Nicholls' collection of songs often crash out before they've reached a chorus, the words provided occasionally prove incomprehensible, and the general idea of what denotes a contemporary rock-music 'song-structure' has been completely flung out of the window, in favour of a ride through a deeply-puzzling journey that may demand repeat-listens to make full sense.
Ya see, although you get the utterly engaging rock-outs that occur within such numbers as recent single 'Get Free' and the frenzied drum-driven ferocity of 'Outtathaway!', when it gets to the 'slow bits', by God, never before have The Beatles and psychedelia fused so fervently or blissfully to create such material as the towering yelps of 'Country Yard' or the tear-jerking beauty of 'Mary Jane' (a potential ode to marijuana? Probably. Or probably not as the case usually is).
Nature-themes are hardly hidden in the cupboard, either; just a glance at the LP's sleeve allows you to know what's coming, revealing a colourful and somewhat peculiar peek into someone's secret-garden, tracks such as the compelling anguish of 'In The Jungle' and beguilingly ambient 'Autumn Shade' complementing the inspiration, simultaneously sounding like nothing else. Along with a few other surprising additions to the main flow of the album - the chipper, upbeat reggae-rock of 'Factory', for instance, and the maximum riffage of closer, '1969' - you've got yourself quite a first album from a new act.
Admittedly, on occasion, you may well not know where they're heading - but at least you're brought there with them, and the chances are that you'll want to relive the experience time and time again. Not just essential for 2002, but from now onwards as well: the future = The Vines.
Artists in this article: The Vines
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