The Vines - Vision Valley Review
Posted by Tollah on 04.11.2006
The Vines are back with a surprisingly under-hyped third LP. Can they live up to the potential shown in their first album or will the mediocrity of Winning Days continue?
The Vines first burst onto the Aussie and world music scene in 2002 with their critically acclaimed debut, Highly Evolved. With it's strong early 90s alt-rock influences coupled with Beatles psychedelia, it turned out to be just the blend of grunge, Britpop inspired rockers and dreamy ballads that the indie scene of the day was looking for. The CD was a huge success with hit singles "Get Free", "Highly Evolved" and "Outtathaway!" acheiving considerable mainstream success, and the Vines were pegged as the next big thing.
Fast forward to 2004. The band tried to repeat the same formula of hard rock, jangly pop and ballads for their follow-up album Winning Days, but it didn't work. The lyrics ranged from dull to cringeworthy and the songs seemed forced. First single "Ride" did very well but the band imploded, culminating in band members fighting each other on-stage at a concert in Sydney. Bassist Patrick Matthews left the band and lead singer/guitarist Craig Nicholls was diagnosed with Asperger's. The band pretty much left the spotlight and no-one really knew if we'd hear anything from the Vines again.
Track List
1. Anysound
2. Nothin's Comin'
3. Candy Daze
4. Vision Valley
5. Don't Listen to the Radio
6. Gross Out
7. Take Me Back
8. Going Gone
9. Fuk Yeh
10. Futuretarded
11. Dope Train
12. Atmos
13. Spaceship
So here we are, and this album has kind of crept on me. I didn't even know it was out until I saw it in the shops yesterday. The lack of hype is consistent with the music itself - very understated. The first thing you'll notice is that only one track on Vision Valley exceeds the 3-minute mark. The production is low key, producing a very raw Vines sound, as opposed to the previous two albums where the production was so clean and shiny you could eat off it. There's also a definite punk influence on this CD that wasn't as apparent on the last two, in terms of the raw sound the vocals. As everyone knows the T-Bomber hates punk, so this is definitely not a good thing.
However, underneath all the changes, the old Vines still lurk. Opener "Anysound" is sounds like an inferior "Ride", for example. In fact, pretty much all of the tracks on this album fit the three main types of Vines songs that filled the previous two albums - there's the dirty, grungey rockers ("Gross Out"), the pop-rockers ("Candy Daze") and the mellow ballads ("Going Gone").
In terms of quality, Vision Valley is a mixed bag. The first 4 tracks are all very mediocre and the album doesn't really bring any quality until the catchy "Don't Listen to the Radio". The ballads range from the boring title track to the excellent "Take Me Back". "Fuk Yeh" is the best hard rocker in the album despite having some generic lyrics. "Dope Train" and "Atmos" are other standout tracks. On the other side of the coin, "Nothin's Comin'" is a terribly predictable song that sounds more like a B-Side than anything. "Candy Daze" sounds as forced as anything from Winning Days, while "Going Gone" is one of the dullest songs I've ever heard.
The anomoly on this album is the 6:05 track closer, "Spaceship". The band seem to have gone for a somewhat epic, sprawling soundscape and it kind of works towards the end - however the first 3 and a half minutes could bore anyone to tears. Nice idea but the delivery wasn't really up to par, which is a pretty good description for the album as a whole.
The 411: While they deserve a lot of credit for both managing to survive a lot of personal difficulties and for trying to shake up their sound, this album simply doesn't live up the creative potential that Craig Nicholls showed on Highly Evolved. Too many songs sound forced, generic or dull, and there's nothing here that's really great - no "Get Free", "In The Jungle" or "Autumn Shade".Having said that, there's some definite quality on here and Vines fans will find something to enjoy.
