The Vines "Vision Valley" (Capitol)
By Peter A. Holden
Friday. May 19, 11:40 AM
Relevance aside, still a batch of strong tunes.

When The Vines released their second album Winning Days, Pitchfork Media proclaimed “No one needs The Vines. No one cries over Vines songs or includes them on breakup mixes.” I would argue that this is essentially true. There are legendary bands and there are classic songs, and the collections which contain them run the gamut from poignant and respectable to cheesy and cliché. Maybe one or two Vines’ songs will make it on those collections somewhere, but not into some lonely teenager’s iTunes. It all depends on personal taste, but something tells me that there are quite a lot of people out there who actually do like The Vines, or else the band wouldn’t keep selling albums. So, music snobs of the indie world can assign “place” and “no place” all they like. If you want to get down and semantically dirty and discuss needs, at our very essence we are just an orgy of subatomic particles, and the universe doesn’t need us, either. So come on, Pitchfork: let’s not be so cynical. There are probably a lot of people out there who would miss you folks if you disappeared, you probably just don’t realize it.

Now, I get what the reviewer is saying: they just don’t like The Vines. Fair enough. But let’s try and step back and really do our job, i.e. review the album for those who might actually like the band. Your job isn’t to remind non-fans why they aren’t fans. They aren’t listening or caring anyway. Assess the record for the actual fans and tell them what they can expect. So let’s get started on Vision Valley.

As their most recent press release stresses, “There are no splashy production values, famous studios, or endless overdubs here.” That sums it up from a purely surface level perspective. Vision Valley is as raw as an album can get when a major has its hands on it. It’s a basic, stripped-down set of great songs and great melodies. It’s just a couple guitars, bass, drums, and vocals. One melodic line and one harmonic line. There’re keys and strings here and there. You won’t get lost in a sea of overladden lines and complex rhythms. I don’t believe that’s really ever been frontman Craig Nicholls’ intent from the outset anyway. As a math teacher of mine once said, “Keep it simple, stupid!” The most tasteful stuff usually does.

One thing you cannot deny is the memorability of the melodies on this album. It’s one of those things that The Vines have always done well: managed to grasp at concrete little ditties that get wedged in your cortex for eternity, regardless of whether you are of the hater or lover category. I’d put myself in the middle firmly. The nice thing about Vision Valley is that there is really only solid songwriting herein. Nothing too ambitious, but nothing too painful either. Nicholls has a firm grasp on his comfort zone when it comes to his capacity for the craft. He stays tight in the pocket and continues to write soft and soothing lullabies just as well as he does raw and punchy garage rock. He is great at getting his point across in under three minutes: no small feat without coming across as stupid.

There aren’t any major surprises on this disc as far as new directions, but the album is just as strong as each effort to date. I think that’s the best way to put it: the album is just plain strong. For fans of The Vines, it’s another installment of great songs. For those who hate them, however, it’s slightly less fodder for their critiques because it shows integrity, consistency, and perseverance through media slugs and “15 minutes of fame” barrages.

Tricky part is they can’t really tour due to Nicholls’ Asperger’s Syndrome. The guy is just unstable, I guess. Nonetheless, the disc should still satiate the loyal. We’ll see what comes next.
www.thevines.com
www.capitolrecords.com

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Peter A. Holden

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