The last Vines album looked like the last Vines album.
The Sydney band were in disarray and unable to recapture the hype that saw their first two albums take on the world.
When their old record label cobbled together a (rather fine) best-of from their 3 studio albums, then jettisoned, things looked grim.

They'd had a handful of global hits, got on the cover of US Rolling Stone and were wooed by Courtney Love and the ipod - both valuable marketing tools.

Singer Craig Nicholls made headlines for bad behavior and subsequently introduced Aspergers Syndrome to the medical vocabulary of rock.

2008 sees the return of The Vines, but their work is cut out for them.

Melodia aims to recapture the magic of their 2002 debut Highly Evolved, going back to the US and producer Rob Schnapf.
There's no real major diversions from their debut here - super short songs, added grunts in the choruses and a running time a shade over 30 minutes.
It's just that there's no song as track-stopping as Get Free or Ride.

Craig Nicholls still has the kind of Richer-level scream heard only in horror movies and Nirvana bootlegs.

Opener Get Out is vintage Vines - as much guitar and vocal turbulence that can be shoehorned in 130 seconds.
Manger has a nice surf guitar twist (in case you forgot about their Pixies obsession). Single He's A Rocker has the brevity of Highly Evolved but sadly not the impact.

Orange Amber distills Nicholls' beloved '60's jangle bands into a fun-size musical snack, and Merrygoround moves from hippy to metal and back in seconds.

Some of The Vines best album tracks have been their quietest ones, and once again they're strategically placed here.

A.S III is epic in scope if not length as pianos, warm harmonies and acoustic guitars collide...gently and quickly.
Nicholls' gets loved up and toned down on Kara Jayne, an ode to his lady friend, and A Girl I Knew shows Nicholls' can conjure up a decent lost-love lyric when he puts his mind to it.

At 6 minutes, True As The Night is triple the length of most tracks here, but when the strings and wailing guitars lock in, it's arguably 3 times as effective.

Melodia is the sound of the Vines steadying the ship on autopilot.
Here's to a few more trips way out of the comfort zone next time.

3/5
Herald Sun


Also article from same paper.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,2...5006024,00.html

This is great, thanks for finding it.

You mean typing

I ment the link you posted from the herald sun. This bit is so funny:"Craig Nicholls jumped straight into the moshpit and landed at the feet of the young woman who had just copped his guitar in the thigh. "

Thanks for typing that all up

Awww...Swiss gril made the article

Thanks for posting
And what a sweet little video there was in the link

thanks 4 post...grrrrr 5/5... god damn u Herald Sun!