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Rating:
THE REVIEW
After listening to "Outtathaway!" I rushed to buy "Highly Evolved", and I discovered it was pretty good. Yes, you heard me right, I said "pretty" good. Forgive me, but after reading about the aura surrounding these Australians, hyped by NME and others, praised as if they could perform all kinds of musical miracles in one go, the expectation was sky-high. But no, nothing of the sort. They made a decent debut album, composed of punk, melodies, and garage rock.
As already mentioned, the music press in Great Britain overflowed, declaring Craig Nicholls and company as the best band of the decade (well, quite an exaggeration... let's be honest, this is a great record but to say these guys would steal fans from the Strokes...), thus ruining them at the start of their career due to the obsession with discovering the "Next Big Thing", leading to convincing an unsuspecting audience that this work was significantly better and more exciting than it actually managed to be.
Oh, Nicholls is a more than decent frontman, he gets angry, rejoices, reflects, whether it's the Asperger syndrome that makes him so interesting I don't know, but I like him... Musically, as already mentioned, the album mixes punk, acoustic strumming, garage, and the influence of Nirvana, which is evident. For the singles, I highlight "Outtathaway!", "Get Free", and "1969". I repeat, it's a great album, but not great enough to deserve the reviews it received at the time of its release; it was nothing innovative or particularly brilliant; it could have been made by any other budding Anglo-Saxon indie band, so comparing it, as I read, to Oasis's "Definitely Maybe" or other masterpieces, of which I can't remember the title now (it's been a few years, sigh), was, in my opinion, ridiculous. In short, as they say, don't believe the hype... 3/5 anyway.
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Summary by Bot
The review finds The Vines' debut album 'Highly Evolved' to be a solid mix of punk, garage, and indie rock. While it praises frontman Craig Nicholls and standout singles, it criticizes the excessive media hype and claims the album was not as groundbreaking as suggested. Ultimately, it calls the record good but not exceptional.
The Vines
The Vines are an Australian rock band from Sydney, frequently characterized (in these reviews and broadly in public discussion) by a blend of '60s-leaning pop/psychedelia and '90s grunge abrasiveness, fronted by Craig Nicholls.15 Reviews
Other reviews
By Axelmoloko
In this album, you will find nothing new, nothing that hasn’t already been written in the rock of the '90s.
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.
By hammondjr
The entire album, at least until 'Get Free,' the best track in my opinion, proceeds with this 'undulating' pace.
Simplicity is the prerogative of The Vines and manifests through the elementary riffs of the guitarists, the timing and fills of Hamish Rosser, and the voice of their leader.
By Roberto De Filippis
It was the album itself that overwhelmed me with its verve out of the ordinary, with its grit, enjoyable to the nth degree because it’s not the result of carelessness or overdoing it, but of great compositional maturity.
Why penalize artists who have managed to synthesize the best of the last forty years of pop-rock in such a wise and personal way?
