A few weeks ago I was mildly surprised to find that The Vines still exist (my buddy Stephen at Engaged Family Gaming informed me that they have a song from this record going into the new Guitar Hero reboot). More properly, Craig Nicholls is still recording music under the Vines moniker; he’s the only member who has been involved for any length of time at this point, long-time drummer Hamish Rosser and rhythm guitarist Ryan Griffiths having thrown in the towel in 2012 and 2011 respectively.
Admittedly, The Vines fell off of my radar completely after their very solid 2002 debut Highly Evolved, at least partly due to their lack of promotion in the US. However, Nicholls has persisted through an array of personal demons – he not only struggles with Asperger syndrome but has had several arrests based on erratic and violent behavior – to produce Wicked Nature, The Vines’ sixth studio record. It’s a double album, with the first disc recorded by Paul McKercher substantially before Lachlan Mitchell recorded the second disc in 2013.
You would think that the time separation, different studios, and different producers might have created a record that has two distinct characters, a dichotomy that could be played against for some manner of musical statement (or at least variety). You couldn’t be further from the truth. The kinder, gentler way to say it is that Wicked Nature is a very consistent record; it’d be easier and closer to factual to say that it’s boring, monotonous, and easily forty minutes too long. I don’t even have words for how saddened I am that the brilliantly explosive “Get Free” from Highly Evolved has been reduced to a slightly chunky riff, a little bit of Beatles-y vocal stuff, and the same chorus-soaked chords on track after track. The couple flashes of something unique on Wicked Nature – “Slightly Alien”, almost at the end of the record, tries to be a little different before succumbing to the sludge – only serve to remind how far away it is from when The Vines were called “the next coming of Nirvana.”
Final Grade: D. Boring, but not completely unlistenable (at least not in the Metal Machine Music kind of way). Don’t bother downloading unless you’re a hardcore fan; you’ll get “Metal Zone” with your copy of Guitar Hero anyway.
Your Shitty Record Won't Review Itself 