Look. We don’t really have a problem with Craig Nicholls, never did, so there’s really nothing here to apologise for. It was just that there were some bands who came along who were better than The Vines, quite simply. It was good while it lasted. We were both consenting adults and we chose to move on. Who knows, if The Strokes or The Libertines or the Kings Of Leon hadn’t come along we may still be together. We don’t need any prosaic medical confessions by way of an explanation, and it’s really none of our business that he’s still porkin’ out on burgers. The passion was gone long before the burgers and the bright summery pop of ‘Winning Days’, so its good we can meet up as friends. And what a difference some time away has meant.
This time round, The Vines have dispensed with half their pile of old Beatles, Hollies and Byrds vinyl and ploughed straight back into the short, sharp rock, riddled with candy coated harmonies and razor-sharp riffs that made ‘Highly Evolved’ one of the most successful and most talked about releases of 2002. Produced by local man, Wayne Connolly and written and recorded, not this time in the sun-tickled, glamorous Los Angeles , but in the prickly, laid-back confines of Craig’s house in Sydney.
Part dreamy, reflective float through the archives of sixties folk psychedelia (‘Candy Daze’ , ‘ Vision Valley’, ‘Take Me Back’, ‘Going Gone’ and part supercharged rush through the garage (‘Anysound’, ‘Gross Out’, ‘Fuk Yeh’) The Vines take us on an unpredictable journey as prone to as many mood swings as the Aspergers suffering Nicholls himself. The strings are still there, but this time the big, thick wedge of production that slowed-down the muddy, ‘Wining Days’ has been traded in favour of some gentle bonhomie.
Like a gorgeous, summery day, with just a few rumbles of thunder. What more could you ask of The Vines?