The Vines - FuturePrimitive

Thu 14th Jul, 2011 in Music Reviews

Whether you love them or hate them, it is almost impossible to deny the impact of Australian rock group The Vines upon the music community, being aligned with other genre-defining bands as The Strokes, The Hives and The White Stripes as being responsible for the revival of the rock genre. Ever since 2001’s Highly Evolved LP, The Vines have been accustom to critical acclaim as well as commercial success, with the singles Get Free and Ride sending this Sydney group to superstar status.

In 2011, comes Future Primitive, an album of traditional ‘Vines’ sound and also an inclusion of some more modern technology to help produce and master the final product, which is perhaps a reflection on the title of the album. ‘Future’ being the possible direction of the band and ‘Primitive’ to retain their original roots which help gain international attention.

Opening Future Primitive is Gimme Love, which is also the lead single from the album. Gimme Love taps into a more mainstream grunge sound, with rough guitar distortion and neo-psychedelic vocal styling by lead vocalist Craig Nicholls. Right from the get-go, the drums are loud, the guitars heavily distorted and are all accompanied by quite the intense scream by Nicholls. This single dwells on catchy lyrics and easy beats, but its abnormally short length of 1 minute 52 seconds, makes it more of a bite-sized sample as opposed to the title track of a new album.

In fact, the majority of the songs on this album are quite small with the 13 tracks averaging around two and a half minutes, which in some respects, is a little disappointing, once a song finally becomes interesting, it is already finished, quite the anti-climax for rock music.

Following on from Gimme Love is the track Leave Me In The Dark, which is much more of an acoustic and melodic Vines, that we have possibly heard before. The inclusion of soft and sweet metallophones and harmonies similar to that of the upbeat style of 60s rock acts as a complete mood changer from the intense guitar work of the opener.

The next single to be released off the album, the title track, is a little bit strange, but does show that The Vines know how to escape from the confines of grunge rock and break into a more modern sound. With blatant post-production work and excessive use of synthesisers, The Vines are progressing into the technological age, but still managing to incorporate their influence of 60s psychedelic rock into their compositions.

Future Primitive is not as strong as The Vines previous work on Highly Evolved or Winning Days, but it still is really quite enjoyable to listen to. If nothing else, this album highlights The Vines’ expansion of versatility, which is most certainly a positive trait and something that we can surely hope to see more of in the near future.