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The album opens with the title track, Highly Evolved. It really does announce the album the right way with pulsating and powerful music. Great lyrics, the chorus goes; If you feel low/You can buy love/From a payphone/ I don’t feel low and other touches such as My times a riddle that’ll ... Read review
Fundamentally, Highly Evolved, the debut album by the Vines, is about growing up in the ... more
90s on a different side of the world. Year Zero is Nevermind, but lead singer/guitarist Craig Nicholls takes from Nirvana their Beatlesian pop imperative, not the r...
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Fundamentally,Highly Evolved, the debut album by the Vines, is about growing up in the 90s ... more
on a different side of the world. Year Zero isNevermind, but lead singer/guitarist Craig Nicholls takes from Nirvana their Beatlesian pop imperative, not the rebranding of metal that catalysed so many mediocre grunge bands. He hears Britpop, but misunderstands it completely: instead of grey parochialism, the Sydney sunshine turns his melodies wilder, balmier--infinitely more appealing.Highly Evolved, then, is the album we always hoped Nirvana would inspire, and the one we always hoped Supergrass might make. It lasts 44 minutes and has a dozen tunes, only one of them--the clunky punk reggae of "Factory"--remotely duff. Sometimes it races along with mad eyes and drool-flecked lips ("Outtathaway!", "Get Free"). Sometimes it reclines into a position of faintly psychedelic ecstasy ("Autumn Shade", "Country Yard", "Mary Jane"). Occasionally it does both in the same song (the climactic "1969") and leaves you gasping at the skill and audacity involved.For Nicholls is, undoubtedly, quite an operator. His lyrics might be a little clichéd and his weirdness a touch studied, but there's no doubting the rare songwriting talent and the charisma with which he expresses it. These are songs so good they often transcend their influences: for once, the cop-out manifesto of "Evolution not Revolution" seems not just apposite, but utterly desirable. --John Mulvey
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...opens with the title track, Highly Evolved. It really does announce the album the right way with pulsating and powerful music. Great lyrics, the chorus goes; If you feel low/You can buy love/From a payphone/ I don’t feel low and other touches such as My times a riddle that’ll never be solved. Fast and alive guitars and just great rock music. Also has the distinctive vocals of this album and is a great opening track.
The ... ...to be a great talent. Highly Evolved contains a great mix to keep all sorts of people happy. There are some tracks that just make you want to get up and shout, others are quieter and make you appreciate the quality. And this band had the quality to go places, whoever you compare them to.
Overall this is not quite an excellent album, but still very good. There has been a lot of build up to this album, and it does deliver to a point. ... more
The Vines come with a high reputation and a lot of expectation on their shoulders. And this is still their first album released last week. People have been talking about this group for a long time; comparisons with Nirvana have been especially rife. Now it is time to see just how good this really is and if they live up to that.
The Vines are a young Australian four-piece rock band from Sydney. The front man is Craig Nicholls who writes all the songs, lyrics and music as well as vocals and guitars. He is clearly talented, both instrumentally and with the construction of the songs. The music is good and there are already signs that the lyrics could get better and better. Patrick Matthews is on bass, Ryan Griffiths on rhythm guitar and Hamish Rosser on drums. They are essentially a rock band, but do not have the image of rockers yet. The album also contains a great mix of sounds. There are the fast paced and loud guitars on some, but also some slower ballads and softer tones. Plans are already going for a second album, and at the moment things look rosy from The Vines.
Craig Nicholls designed the albums artwork as well. It is actually a pretty good painting of a tropical jungle scene, with of course lots of vines in the vegetation. On the inlay all the lyrics are printed out. The band does do some great lyrics, but also some rather pointless ones. They actually write down AAAAAAHHHHHHH X 8 down in words, a bit of a waste of time and they do this sort of wailing quite a lot. The colour change on each page so it can at time look like you are reading a paint selection book, and it is a bit green.
The album opens with the title track, Highly Evolved. It really does announce the album the right way with pulsating and powerful music. Great lyrics, the chorus goes; If you feel low/You can buy love/From a payphone/ I don’t feel low and other touches such as My times a riddle that’ll never be solved. Fast and alive guitars and just great rock music. Also has the distinctive vocals of this album and is a great opening track.
The second track could not be more different. ‘Autumn Shade’ is a total change coming down to a smooth ballad. Just drops comfortably into a slow and gently track so easily without looking out of place. Quality and good talent to do that, the song fades out with a great instrumental piece.
‘Outtahaway’ comes right back with another rock track. More fast paced and loud guitars. Very catchy and swims round your head the first time you listen to it, then continues to grow on you. The chorus is short and fast, and it moves along really well, thought the grammar possibly needs a little work.
Sunhinin is possibly a weaker point on the album. There is very little to this song, there is neither the quality in the other slow tracks nor the loud guitars. Still easy to listen to and moves along well. The lyrics are again worth a look at and certainly not a bad song.
I did not like Homesick either the first time I listened to it, but it has grown on me. Another slower track and much more mellow. The lyrics seemed a bit childish at first, ‘went on my own/without my phone’, but it does have a lot of emotion and build up on it. They bring in a piano to really slow the sound down, and it does end up as a really good song and a total change away from others on the album. Get Free was a single off the album. I really brought this album on the strength of that, despite all the things said about them I wanted to listen to them first hand. What I found listening to this was excellent. This is again a really fast and energetic track. One of the best on the album for just pure adrenalin and noise, it moves so fast and takes you with it. Great lyrics, releasing all the things inside and play it loud.
Then the album changes right down again with Country Yard. Easy and pleasing to listen to, another real change from track to track done effortlessly. Harder to get hooked onto, but you can feel the quality.
I really do like the next track now. Called Factory I missed this the first time around, but it really is good. The song basically follows the lives of factory workers, about the boredom and misery in a repetitive job. The lyrics change wonderfully from ‘days are long/but the minds are strong/in the factory’ to ‘but the minds are gone/in the factory’. It does seem a little strange and out of place, but there is something to this that makes it good. Not pure noise, but some real guitars and a great track.
To have a song about being in a factory to go to a song called In the Jungle may not have been a good idea. This is really a forgettable song, nothing to write home about. Here the album does start to lose its way a little bit. It is a good enough song to listen to and easy to get into, but does not carry the same quality forward as some of the earlier tracks.
Mary Jane is a bright spot in the end of the album, another ballad that has quality written all over it. Like other tracks they bring in a piano and the result is a great song, though not unlike others on the album.
Ain’t No Room is another example of great guitars and mixes the loud and the quiet aspects together. Though by this stage it is starting to drop off, and weaker songs on the album are placed here.
1969 finishes off the album with a long song. It possibly does not do it justice to put it right down at the end of the album, this is actually a good song if you listen to it well enough. Ties up the album nicely though, it would have been a shame to end it any other way.
People have been talking about The Vines for a long time. Now their first album has arrived others can see what they mean. It is not a perfect album, nor the best rock album ever but goes some way. They have confidence in their abilities, and Craig Nicholls looks to be a great talent. Highly Evolved contains a great mix to keep all sorts of people happy. There are some tracks that just make you want to get up and shout, others are quieter and make you appreciate the quality. And this band had the quality to go places, whoever you compare them to.
Overall this is not quite an excellent album, but still very good. There has been a lot of build up to this album, and it does deliver to a point. There are some really good tracks here, as well as potential showing through a long way. Even if this is not a masterpiece there is still time for them to get even better.
Advantages: Sounds so fresh after being drowned in nu-metal Disadvantages: Shows a bit of immaturity, but then again, it is their debut...
...first exhibit into the case. Highly Evolved, 90 seconds of unclassifiable talent… Its short, its powerful, its done more for the rock scene in just these 90 seconds than the countless years that have passed since Kurt Cobain’s passing. Its impossible not to see the links between this and Nirvana’s music, but it takes just as much from the Beatles and the Kinks than it does its grunge forefathers. With lyrics such as ‘If you feel low/You can buy love/from ... ...millennia so far. Highly Evolved will invariably compared to Nevermind, but do not for a minute think that that means a constant grunge rock-out. There is so much more to the vines than that. Front man Craig Nicholls possesses all the ingredients needed to make a superstar, he’s a prolific song writer (he’s already got songs in mind for the second album before the first one has even been released), and on the evidence of this release, the talent ...
floyd-the-barber 12.07.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Highly Evolved - Vines (The)
Advantages: The main plus point has to be Vines singer songwritter Craig Nicholls Disadvantages: The amount of hype they have received from places such as the NME.
...guide. Track 1 Highly Evolved The albums title track only last for a short 93 seconds but is a great introduction to the album. Sounds like an indie tune with the grunge rock edge to it. It is rummored that the influence for this song came from the Verve's Urban Hyms album. The last track written for this album but unquestionably had to be the first onto it. "My brother Bill, He work on the Market, Life is an arrow now and he is the target" Track ... ...on acoustic tracks). Compared to Highly Evolved this is a mellow track that is so easy to sit back and relax to. This song came from a period when Craig would lock himself in his room and try and write, this one about his back garden. "Slip into the Autumn shade, I could sleep for days" Track 3 Outtathaway The next single to be lifted from the album. Another varied musical taste appears here with a little Motown intro beat before Craig starts to ...
Andy.mack 29.08.2002 (21.03.2003)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Highly Evolved - Vines (The)
Advantages: Rocks... Disadvantages: ...but only in places. Overhyped
I've had The Vines album for two days now, and I'm still in a state of ummm-ing and errr-ing over it. I bought it after hearing a couple of songs on Triple J (Australian radio station) as well as what they've had to say ("Really good"... "Doing massively well in the UK" are the two most frequent catchphrases at the moment), and also keeping my ear close to the grapevine (pun #1). Plus it was only $22, instead of the more cheeky $30. But the only ... ...sometimes get misplaced.
I really wanted to like this album, as it was another shout to the world that Australian talent could make it big overseas. The Vines are comprised of three Sydney chaps, Craig Nicholls, Patrick Matthews and Dave Olliffe, as well as many cameos by other people who come in and do a bit here and there. That's what it says in the cover anyway. On the bands official website (thevines.com) it states "Craig Nicholls writes the ...
paulgusta 25.08.2002 (26.08.2002)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Highly Evolved - Vines (The)
Advantages: A really mixed album Disadvantages: band will be short lived due to singers insanity
...woulda loved 'em..).
See - Highly Evolved, Get Free, Outtathaway
Then the next track would sound like vintage Beatles (see Autumn Shade, and particularly Homesick), even adopting the same Lennon vocal echo, but only suggesting Beatles rather than adopting blatant copyism (Oasis please stand up..)
Ain't No Room sounds like a Warm Jets song..
Factory is classic Kinks..
1969 like the equally wonderful Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
other bits remind ... ...sure you could all throw other bands at me too, and I'd scratch my chin & pipe up "oh yeah!"
But as I said, it's not blatant plagarism or copycat.
It's suggestion of influence.
If you like, learning, and almost a nod in appreciation towards what is acceptable, and an acknowledgement of influence.
Get free. ...
Jonny_Narcissus 08.11.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Highly Evolved - Vines (The)
Advantages: Highly Original Alternative Rock Album Disadvantages: Realitivly short
...there eagerly awaited 2nd album.
Highly Evolved is The vines Debut album, and if you consider it a debut album you can just realise the true genious that is The Vines. As with most debut albums that Bands release tends to be lacking that certain fernese. For example, the self titled debut album 'The Red Hot Chili Peppers' did not do well and does not refelect the true standard of the Chillis.
The Album consist of 12 tracks, and is of the India/ ... ...review about them:
1) Highly Evolved
This is Probobly my favouirte track on the album, although it has not introduction. It goes straight into singing but is a great opener for an Album. Also as the verses draw to a close and the chorus begins the tempo slightly increases getting you more excited. This is Excelent Song!
2) Autumn Shade
Again this song is missing an intro, but in my oppinion an intro to accompany this song would just ruin it. ...
durk 20.12.2003 (21.12.2003)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Highly Evolved - Vines (The)
Originality
Lyrics
Quality and consistency...
How does it compare to ...
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Advantages: Shows the Vines ability to do both quiet and loud very well Disadvantages: the weak tracks are very weak indeed
'Winning days' is the second album form Australian group 'TheVines' A lot of critics consider this a poor follow up to their much lauded debut, but in reality it's a solid album, if at times slightly uninspiring. The msuic press got very overexcited with 'HighlyEvolved', the debut album, with the NME comparing it to 'Nevermind' by Nirvana. In reality 'TheVines' are influenced more by British pop music such as The Beatles, Supergrass and The Kinks than American grunge. Their songs manage to be aggresive and loud, whilst remaining great pop songs. Their quieter moments are country-esque ballads that can be something of a hit or miss affair.
I'm going to go through the album track by track:
1.Ride
The lead single is MTV approved commercial rock with a killer shouty chorus and a stabbed guitar riff. Inane lyrics aside it's a fine ...
Product Information for "Highly Evolved - Vines (The)" »
Product details
Title
Highly Evolved
Performer
Vines (The)
Genre
Rock & Pop
Release Date
08/07/2002
Original Release Year
2002
Label / Distributor
Heavenly / EMI Operations/CEVA Logistics
Engineer
Doug Boehm
Producer
Rob Schnapf; Justin Stanley
Pieces in Set
1
Studio / Live
Studio
Stereo
Stereo
Format
Performer
EAN
724354056826
Catalogue Number
HVNLP 36CD
Additional notes
Album Notes
The Vines: Craig Nicholls (vocals, guitar, piano, percussion); Patrick Matthews (piano, organ, bass, background vocals); David Olliffe (drums). Additional personnel: Rob Schnapf (guitar); Roger Joseph Manning Jr (keyboards); Pete Thomas, Joey Waronker, Victor Indrizzo (drums); Ethan Johns, Steven Rhoades (percussion). Recorded at Sound Factory and Sunset Sound Recorders, Hollywood, California between July 2001 and February 2002. Most folks first became aware of Australian rockers the Vines via their cover of the Beatles' "I'm Only Sleeping" on 2001's I AM SAM soundtrack album. A few months down the line, their 2002 debut album HIGHLY EVOLVED took the UK by storm. Shortly thereafter, the album was released in the US with high hopes. The group's basic, no-frills guitar rock should find plenty of friends among fans of the Strokes, the Hives, White Stripes, etc. It's rock & roll stripped to the bone, pared down to charging riffs that reference such evergreen influences as the Stooges and the MC 5, and sharp songcraft with echoes of everything from T. Rex to Nirvana. There are a couple of softer moments on HIGHLY EVOLVED, such as the ruminative "Autumn Shade" and the contemplative "Homesick," but for the most part these Aussie lads lead an electrified charge with all guns blazing, frenzied vocals and sledgehammer rhythms belting out their battle cry of rock with a capital "r."
Album Reviews
Rolling Stone (12/26/02, p.112) - Included in Rolling Stone's "50 Best Albums of 2002" Q (12/02, p.69) - Included in Q Magazine's "50 Best Albums of 2002" Rolling Stone (7/25/02, p.73) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...A promising first effort...These four handsome Australian lads are doing a fine job of plundering decades worth of trashy-yet-tuneful American rock..." Alternative Press (8/02 p.86) - 8 out of 10 - "...It's rare for a band to channel the Velvet Underground, Nirvana, Dandy Warhols and the Beatles within the span of 45 minutes and sound unique, but the Vines have crept into that select category with HIGHLY EVOLVED." NME (7/6/02, p.24) - 9 out of 10 - "...Arty and hummable, gloomy but not scared of long, lazy afternoons in the sun, this album is the sort of shiver-down-the-spine debut that gets you thinking that if The Stokes were the John The Baptists of rock then just maybe..." Uncut (8/02, p.116) - 4 out of 5 - "...Striking a seam said to be equal parts Beatles and Nirvana...Despite pasty complexions and studio tan lines, these Vines will grow on you..." CMJ (6/24/02, p.12) - "...HIGHLY EVOLVED elevates you to a better place..."
Titles on disc 1
1.
Highly Evolved
2.
Autumn Shade
3.
Outtathaway
4.
Sunshinin'
5.
Homesick
6.
Get Free
7.
Country Yard
8.
Factory
9.
In The Jungle
10.
Mary Jane
11.
Ain't No Room
12.
1969
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