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Rating: After 'Highly Evolved', the masterpiece of coolness, elegance, sweetness, and nostalgia from their debut in August 2002, and a 2nd album, at first listen, reasonably, less electrifying than their debut (but which revealed a certain confirmation of their talent), the Vines return with an album (Vision Valley) but forgo the tour because it is not ideal for the mental order of the leader Craig Nichols, who has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome: a mild form of autism, more a 'difference' than a disease, which indeed characterizes hypersensitive people but with genius traits.
The album does not surprise as much as its predecessors. It has different faces, all sharing the strong personality of the Vines. The components of the work are: the style of Nirvana and the Beatles, garage rock, and gentle psychedelia. The album opens with a sort of intro made of limping guitar riffs with four chords in a '70s style supported by Nichols' energetic and excited voice (Anysound) Nothin's comin' and Don't listen to the radio open with an irresistible pulsating bass.
The delightful Nothin's comin', which starts straightforward and seems like it came out of a garage version of Nirvana's 'In Utero' and less elaborate, while Don't listen to the radio is less direct, more pop, progressing in the refrain with rough garage riffs (unpleasant). But even more delightful, already from the title, is Candy Daze, which shoots off in the manner of Beatles' intros, continuing to inspire a gentle rubbersoulesque psychedelia that compromises with Nirvana (obviously deprived of the hard rock elaborateness).
In the title track they propose a very polished and catchy ballad (as never before one of their songs) with strings and a rhythm in the Oasis style but that still shows the strong personality of the band, particularly Craig's voice: descending, thrillingly warm, bringing to mind the feeling of ecstatic satisfaction of someone who has fallen in love with the right person. Very short, direct, and incendiary (and quite punk), Gross Out always with rough riffs, and a raucous voice, not particularly brilliant. Take me back is essential, direct, simple, to the point that it seems to have been heard before (maybe in a retro movie, like The Sound of Music), a ballad that evokes decidedly country and gentle psychedelic atmospheres.
Going gone, the least direct track, very refined, could appear in the previous album. Fuck yeh is a playful and ironic display of all their badassery. Dope train (super-dragging), daughter of the Stooges, avalanche rhythm, intriguing atmosphere, with a resentful mood in the chorus. Atmos, a very short incendiary piece, not brilliant, but climaxes with a guitar solo before swooping down into poppy little choruses like a solemn ritual. And finally, Spaceship, the most artificial piece (vaguely reminiscent of Pink Floyd) and relaxed (the longest: 6 min.) starts very quietly, progresses with a rhythmic chorus and then leisurely, and after a false ending, resumes with excellent lysergic digressions (already hinted at in all of the, albeit very short, songs on the record).
PRODUCED BY: Wayne Connolly (Died Pretty, The Fauves)
THE HIGHLIGHTS: Nothin's comin' (5/5), Candy Daze (5/5), Vision valley (5/5), Dope train (5/5), Going gone (4 ½ /5), Take me back (4-/5)
THE FLOPS: Don't listen to the radio, Gross Out
THE OTHERS: Anysound, Fuck yeh, Futuretarded, Atmos, Spaceship
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Anysound (01:55)
I am a Vine
All twisted and frayed
Lookin' for light
A million ways
Time hangin' around
Been getting' me down now baby yeah
Show me any sound
Kill me now I'm dead
Keep for yourself
Or throw it away
Damage your health
Or manage your brain
Time hangin' around
Been getting' me down now baby yeah
Show me any sound
Kill me now I'm dead
02 Nothin's Comin' (02:00)
Tell where I'm going to
Got nothing I wanna lose
Round and round and back again
Grin upon my fuckin head
Nothin's comin
I feel your death
Nothin's comin
Fallin' in or outta space
So sick of our human race
All for one ain't nothing real
Tell you how I fuckin feel
Nothin's comin'
I feel your death
Nothin's comin'
Nothin's comin'
Nothin's comin'
Nothin's comin'
03 Candy Daze (01:40)
Candy daze are here to stay forever
They light the way and keep us all together
C'mon C'mon
Singin' a song
It won't be long
For we are gone
Candy daze are here to stay forever
They light the way and keep us all together
It'll be alright
I don't know I say it might
It'll seem alright
She spit in my face
04 Vision Valley (02:42)
Are you here forever standin' by the road
With the benefit of feelin' on your own
Where the river ends the sun is comin' down
05 Don't Listen to the Radio (02:10)
Don't listen to the radio
Hear something that ya ready know
I got no radio
Don't speak upon the telephone
Hear somethin' that you're never shown
I got no telephone
Get out the way today
(Oh yeah I say)
Get out the way today
(Oh yeah I say)
Don't listen to the TV show
Feel someone that you ready know
I got no T.V.O
Get out the way today
(Oh yeah I say)
Get out the way today
(Oh yeah I say)
06 Gross Out (01:18)
C'mon now let me feel the gross out ain't corruptin' you
Alone and trippin' out on acid agein' in your room
I feel so down
Time bring me round
C'mon now let me feel the gross out obvious and aloof
I know ya never had a faith in all that which ya knew
I feel so down
Time bring me round
C'mon now let me feel the gross out
C'mon I'll let ya feel the gross out
07 Take Me Back (02:42)
There's no point in doin' what I've done
Lives are goddamned ruined like the runts
Take me back to the weather
Bend the tracks wish forever
Take me back for I go down there no more
Chew us up and spit us out again
Wavin' bye and getting high on trends
Take me back to the weather
Bend the tracks and wish forever
Take me back for I go down there no more
Well the road is long
But I know I can survive
Been away so long
Anyway I saw what I could find
10 Futuretarded (01:47)
I don't know how the future started
We might as well all be retarded
Cut from an image turned to stone
Makin' me feel it to the bone
Deep in the jungle or Sahara
Real people carry on regardless
Left unaffected left alone
The sun, the earth, the moon their home
In the beginning
Or the old days
Surreal lives and mine are strange
Oh yeah I say
It's like futuretarded
C'mon baby don't say
C'mon baby don't mind
Every night every day
Everything will be right
11 Dope Train (02:36)
I hear the sound
Comin' up
Goin' down
Danger in the hollow
Sewer on the side
Waitin' for the morrow
Dope to get ya by
See for a mile
What I mean
To decide
Danger in the hollow
Sewer on the side
Waitin for the morrow
Dope to get ya by
You're forever dreamin'
And forever bored
Everything ya needed
I just cold ignore
12 Atmos (01:50)
Out in the atmosphere
Far, far away from here
I hear the sound of you
Tellin ya I love you
If I were anywhere
What me I got no care
As long as I see you
Tellin ya I love you
I really ruley do
13 Spaceship (06:06)
Mother said
Get me out
Brother meant
Get me out
I got a spaceship in the yard
We're only fourteen years apart
Or am I lost beside the stream
Tattoo my head tattoo my feet
I will leave home
Through the vision valley waitin' to be found
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Other reviews
By Adil
What surprises this time are the ballads: Take Me Back and Vision Valley precisely because of their absolute simplicity are the best episodes of this comeback.
Many, however, will prefer to overlook Nicholls' evident musical maturation to better focus the spotlight on his shaky mental health.
By ste84
Here comes the blown-up Craig Nicholls again, returning with his group of poor souls forced to settle for a mentally unstable front man...
In this valley you only see things that have been seen over and over...
By JULIANHAMPSHIRE
Spaceship (arguably the best track on the album)... it’s pointless to extend it over 6 minutes just because the other tracks don’t reach half an hour.
Craig’s voice, with its famous overlapping counter-melodies, never bores.
