The Vines
Highly Evolved

History repeats itself! A band of eighteen-year-olds releases a couple of singles and the press bows at their feet. How to remain objective and not find yourself in the midst of the flock praising the new champions of music? The method is very simple. It's the same one you use when you record the sporting event of the year, unable to watch it live, and cut yourself off from the world to avoid knowing the result in advance. So, CD spinning in the player and newspapers, televisions, and radios miles away. The minute and a half of the opening track aims to make one thing clear: in this album, you will find nothing new, nothing that hasn't already been written in the rock of the '90s. What remains to be understood is the way the quotations are made. "Highly Evolved," "Outthataway," "Get Free," and "In The Jungle" are an interesting mix between the anger of Nirvana and the lightheartedness of the early Supergrass. "Autumn Shade," "Country Yard," and "Homesick" are ballads that a few years ago Noel Gallagher armed with an acoustic guitar could have written with his eyes closed, but which from "Be Here Now" onwards seem to be part of his illustrious past. Particular mention should be made of "Factory," a piece that would find a worthy place in Blur's "Parklife." If you've forgotten what the '90s produced, this is the album for you as it retraces with freshness and intelligent inspirations a decade of guitar bands. Nonetheless, there remains the hope that The Vines from this point onwards will show greater interest in the roots of rock to which Oasis and company owe their fortune. In a few words, don't call them the new Strokes; the Americans started studying from the first chapters of music history.