The Vines
Vision Valley
Capitol

The Vines, what's there to say? Since NME described them as the next big thing (which happens to almost all bands on NME's front cover) back in 2001, they became huge after their first album, which to my opinion had only two decent songs. Next attempt failed miserably, and now their back with a new line up they are once again trying to conquer the rock throne short songs (max 2 min long, one 6 min), yelling and some pop songs.

I must say that I was pretty prejudiced to this album. The Vines became a huge disappointment when I saw them live a couple of years ago. Since Craig Nicholls (vocalist) has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome (autistic-like behaviors and marked deficiencies in social and communication skills), it seems like they have become nice kids. The single "Don't Listen to the Radio", could without the yelling parts, be an ELO song. Not bad you say, but not what you expect of a rock band. In the long run, yelling is kind of uninteresting to me.

It's a strange mix of songs here, which feels unsatisfying. "Take Me Back" and "Going Gone" are slow songs going nowhere. You have to have a close hand on the remote control, since there are so spread out material of different styles here. An album with boring and annoying songs, will hopefully be forgotten.

Maybe I'm just too old (35!!), but I dislike this record big time. Please don't buy this record. Buy or put on some decent classic rock albums instead than this lousy attempt.

Copyright © 2006 Geir Fladseth