++ALBUM++ review by Matt Merritt
This premature collection sets out to remind us why we were quite fond of Craig Nicholls and his grunge-pop McDonalds addicts. Matt Merritt weighs up whether it's all been worth it...
Why is it that some bands stay with you no matter how long it’s been since you last heard them? Others seem to disappear the instant you stop listening, and still more lurk, half forgotten in your subconscious and then all your memories of them leap out when you here the opening chords to a certain song.
So it is with The Vines when I stick their best-of into the CD player, and the weirdly Austin Powers-esque retro rock of ‘Get Free’ blasts itself out of the speakers. It's a mix of the best the sixties and the nineties have to offer without any apparent knowledge of what went on in between.
"On reflection it seems baffling that The Vines were initially compared to Nirvana..."
By the time ‘Ride’ kicks in, I’m already thinking about the bands troubled past. Craig Nicholls increasing wild behaviour as the band toured their second album was well documented, the fact he was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome less so.
Sadly, with the immediacy of their two biggest singles out of the way, the album becomes less gripping. ‘Factory’, with it’s funky bass line and the introspective title track form their third album ‘Vision Valley’ stand up as highlights, charting the bands evolution as they moved from 60’s garage rock to influences like Beck and Pavement.
On reflection it seems baffling that The Vines were initially compared to Nirvana. Though by no means bad songwriters or performers, they were hardly groundbreaking. Yet with Nicholls’ wildman stage antics and copious drug use - and in a pre-Doherty world - it was perhaps inevitable that comparisons with another tortured soul would pop up.
With their next album Braindead, their first since leaving Capitol for Ivy League Records, on the horizon, now seems like a good time to revisit the band who spearheaded the ‘Oz Invasion’ back in 2001.
++ Matt Merritt ++
Artrocker rating: 3
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