‘Highly Evolved’ lasts for only 95 seconds, but it ‘ll stay ringing inside your head long after that. This is Vines’ debut single proper, after a 7" of demos appeared on Rex Records late last year, and confirms just why everyone is about to lose their minds over this band.
Scorched, ragged and super heavy, ‘Highly Evolved’ takes ‘Bleach’-era Nirvana as its starting point and then proceeds to compress the whole of Kurt Cobain’s career into a blistering minute and a half. It’s a totally brilliant record, and the genius behind it is 21-year-old Australian Craig Nicholls. Considering he’s got at least a dozen songs better than this still to come, you’ve got to imagine that by the end of the year, Vines are going to be bigger than U2, Gareth Gates and [a][/a] combined. We’re not joking. This is a record you must own.
James Oldham
8.7
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